HOUSES  FOR  TOWN 
OR  COUNTRY 


A   NEW-OLD  DOORWAY 


,  HOUSES 

v — —- 

for 

TOWN  or  COUNTRY 

BY 

£r«  /y>  Hey^T*""  Ifcyi-a- 

William    Herbert 
ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK 

Duffield    &    Company 

1907 


COPYRIGHT  1903,  1904,  1905,  1906,  1907, 
BY  THE  ARCHITECTURAL  RECORD  Co. 


COPYRIGHT  1907,   BY 
DUFFIELD  &  COMPANY 


Published  August, -IQO? 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


I.  AMERICAN  ARCHITECTURE  OF  TO-DAY     .  3 

II.  THE  TYPICAL  TOWN  HOUSE     ....  39 

III.  THE  AMERICAN  COUNTRY  ESTATE     .      .  63 

IV.  THE  TYPICAL  COUNTRY  HOUSE     ...  89 
V.  THE  HOUSE  FOR  ALL  THE  YEAR     .      .      .  105 

VI.  THE  HALL  AND  THE  STAIRS     .      .      .      .  126 

VII.  THE  LIVING-ROOM 145 

VIII.  THE   DINING-ROOM 158 

IX.  THE  BEDROOM 177 

X.  THE  KITCHEN 192 

XL  THE    HOUSE   IN    RELATION   TO   OUT-OF- 
DOORS 203 

XII.  NEW  USES  OF  OLD  FORMS  222 


HOUSES  FOR  TOWN 
OR    COUNTRY 


CHAPTER  I 

AMERICAN  ARCHITECTURE  OF  TO-DAY 

THE  United  States  has  of  late  years  passed  through 
a  period  of  significant  activity  in  house-building. 
Beginning  with  1899,  Americans  began  to  realise 
that  their  stock  of  buildings  of  all  kinds  was  inade- 
quate or  superannuated.  Increased  volume  of  busi- 
ness, improved  standards  of  living,  higher  aesthetic 
ideals  all  demanded  more  buildings,  in  some  cases 
larger  buildings,  and  buildings  of  a  different  type. 
Railroads  found  their  stations  cramped  and  ill- 
planned  their  bridges  too  light  to  carry  the  heavier 
rolling  stock  they  were  using.  Inn-keepers  discovered 
that  their  patrons  wanted  larger  and  more  sump- 
tous  hotels,  and  at  the  same  time  they  wished  to  take 
advantage  themselves  of  recent  improvements  in  the 
mechanics  of  hotel  arrangement  and  outfit.  The 
growth  of  cities  and  the  increase  in  the  wealth  of 
their  capitalists  and  banks  encouraged  as  never  before 
in  so  short  a  period  the  erection  of  huge  office  build- 
ings; factories  and  warehouses  of  greater  dimensions 
and  superior  equipment  were  demanded  in  even 
larger  numbers;  western  and  southern  cities  as  well 
as  New  York  found  anartment  houses  paying  specu- 
lative enterprises;  and  finally,  all  over  the  country 
rich  and  moderately  well-to-do  people  were  stimu- 
lated either  to  build  new  and  larger  dwellings,  or  to 

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HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

remodel  and  redecorate,  with  the  guidance  of  the 
best  contemporary  standards  of  design  and  embel- 
lishment, the  dwellings  which  they  already  had.  A 
complete  set  of  new  architectural  mechanism  and 
scenery  was  required;  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  in  constructing  it  the  American  people  accom- 
plished in  a  few  years  an  amount  of  building  quite 
unprecedented  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

What  dominant  tendencies  are  traceable  in 
this  miscellaneous  mass  of  new  construction?  Which 
of  these  tendencies  are  new?  Which  significant? 
Which  wholesome?  What  vitality  have  these 
wholesome  tendencies? 

The  tendency  best  worth  remarking  is  the  increas- 
ing influence  of  a  few  general  types  of  design. 
American  architecture  is  still  heterogeneous  and  in- 
discriminate enough;  but  not  nearly  so  much  so  as 
it  used  to  be.  Certain  solutions  of  special  problems 
have  been  worked  out,  and  largely  adopted;  and  it  is 
even  more  encouraging  to  note  that  these  special 
ways  of  treatment  and  types  of  design,  while  open  to 
many  serious  objections,  have  all  some  measure  of 
propriety.  Architecture  in  America,  in  other  words, 
is  becoming  nationalised  in  very  much  the  same 
way,  if  not  to  very  much  the  same  extent,  as  in  mod- 
ern England  or  France. 

The  more  complete  nationalising  of  American 
architecture  in  this  limited  sense  may  not  seem  to  be 
a  very  important  or  desirable  achievement;  but  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  history  of  American  archi- 
tecture, it  is  both.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
process  in  question  is  one  of  improvement,  and 

4 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

promises,  by  giving  some  coherence  and  definiteness 
to  a  collection  of  designs  formerly  much  more  in- 
coherent and  dubious,  to  make  the  long  and  devious 
path  of  American  architectural  experimentation  end 
in  some  genuine  local  architectural  types. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  American  architectural 
practice  was  most  uniform  at  the  time  when  Ameri- 
can social  life  was  most  completely  divided  by 
local  and  provincial  traditions  and  customs.  Not- 
withstanding differences  arising  from  the  contrast 
between  the  manner  of  life  of  a  New  England  mer- 
chant and  a  Virginian  planter,  the  larger  Colonial 
building  was  surprisingly  the  same  in  all  parts  of 
the  country,  just  as  it  was  also  surprisingly  similar  to 
its  prototype  in  Georgian  England.  In  the  same 
way  the  architectural  pseudo-classicism  of  the  early 
days  of  the  Republic,  as  soon  as  it  was  sufficiently 
introduced  and  properly  familiarised,  was  used  al- 
most universally  in  buildings  intended  to  possess  any 
considerable  architectural  quality.  In  both  these 
cases  Americans  were  content  to  imitate  a  habit  of 
design  which  originated  abroad  and  was  authorised 
by  the  respectable  critical  opinion  of  the  day.  They 
were  frankly  Colonial  in  their  practice,  untroubled 
by  any  aspirations  after  originality,  diversity  or  pic- 
turesqueness. 

As  American  life  became  more  thoroughly  nation- 
alised, American  architecture  lost  its  early  innocence 
of  imitation,  and  consequently  its  early  uniform- 
ity. It  abandoned  all  touch  with  the  respectable 
critical  opinion  of  other  countries;  and  it  was 
quite  without  any  definite  critical  opinions,  respect- 

6 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

able  or  otherwise,  of  its  own.     In   fact  it  had  no 
leading  strings,  except  certain  blind  but  significant 


i 


NEW  YORK  HOUSE  FRONTS 


instincts.  The  practice  of  imitation  was  deep- 
rooted;  but  it  was  the  practice  of  imitating  foreign 
models  exclusively.  There  was  never  any  thought 

8 


AMERICAN  ARCHITECTURE  OF  TO-DAY 

of  working  over,  or  of  really  appropriating  the 
forms  already  nationalised  in  this  country.  The 
period  of  American  architecture  meant  merely  the 


RENAISSANCE  FACADES 


substitution  of  indiscriminate  habits  of  imitation,  for 
the  selective  imitation  which  had  up  to  that  time 
prevailed.  The  idea  apparently  was  that  the  United 
States  had  inherited,  architecturally,  all  the  styles  of 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

the  present  and  of  the  past,  of  the  East  and  the 
West;  and  that  the  best  way  to  use  this  heritage  was 
to  transplant  to  American  soil  as  many  samples  as 
possible  of  these  various  types  of  building  So,  dur- 
ing the  twenty  years  preceding  the  war,  American 
architecture  showed  how  disinterested  and  impar- 
tial it  was  by  becoming  responsible  for  a  surprising 
collection  of  Greek  and  Egyptian  temple-residences, 
Italian  villas,  French  chateaux,  Oriental  padogas 
and  Gothic  cottages.  If  there  was  any  style  of 
building  which  the  American  architect  of  that 
period  missed,  its  omission  was  assuredly  due  to 
ignorance  rather  than  to  intention.  Of  course,  this 
ignorant  and  riotous  copying  was  to  be  found  chiefly 
in  the  design  of  private  dwellings.  The  official 
architecture  of  the  whole  of  this  period  tended  to 
be  very  conservative;  and  while  New  York  did  not 
avoid  the  anomaly  of  an  "  Egyptian"  prison,  Wash- 
ington was  spared  the  misfortune  of  any  precisely 
analogous  absurdity. 

Without  going  into  the  details  of  our  architectural 
history,  it  is  sufficient  for  present  purposes  to  say 
that  design  in  this  country  has  retained  ever  since  to 
a  greater  or  less  extent  this  habit  of  indiscriminate 
imitation.  Its  occasional  attempts  at  originality 
have  been  limited  either  to  mere  exaggerated  dis- 
tortions of  conventional  types,  or  to  the  incongruous 
mixture  of  several  different  types  in  one  building. 
There  has,  however,  been  a  constant  improvement 
in  the  quality  of  the  imitation,  owing  to  the  im- 
provement in  the  training  and  equipment  of  the 
American  architect,  and  a  number  of  special  archi- 

10 


AMERICAN  ARCHITECTURE  OF  TO-DAY 

tectural  movements  have  at  different  times  had  a  great 
deal  of  influence.  During  the  seventies,  for  instance, 
the  attempted  reform  of  the  methods  of  interior  deco- 
ration, which  originated  with  Charles  Eastlake,  had 
considerable  popularity.  Next  the  powerful  per- 
sonality of  Richardson  printed  the  Romanesque  Re- 
vival upon  many  of  the  most  important  buildings 
erected  during  the  eighties.  Since  then  the  cur- 
rent has  been  running  toward  several  different  dilu- 
tions of  the  Italian  or  the  French  Renaissance  styles. 
All  of  these  architectural  tendencies  are  embodied  in 
a  greater  or  smaller  number  of  buildings;  but  the 
point  is  that  the  particular  tendencies  now  prevailing 
are  embodied  in  a  greater  number  of  buildings  than 
ever  before.  The  Eastlakian  reform  and  the  Roman- 
esque revival  affected  different  parts  of  the  country 
very  unevenly.  The  tendencies  now  at  work  are 
more  evenly  and  generally  effective;  and  if  the 
larger  of  the  new  buildings  could  all  be  grouped 
together  they  would  show  both  fewer  architectural 
types  and  a  wider  geographical  distribution  of 
them. 

Take,  for  instance,  the  designing  of  tall  office- 
buildings.  When  steel  construction  began  to  have 
its  effect  upon  the  height  and  the  looks  of  office- 
buildings,  two  tendencies  were  traceable  in  their 
design.  In  New  York  there  was  no  attempt,  as  there 
should  be  in  any  kind  of  building,  to  make  their 
appearance  express  their  structure.  A  convention  of 
treating  them  as  columns  with  a  decorated  capital, 
a  long  plain  central  shaft,  and  a  heavier  base,  was 
early  adopted;  and  within  the  limits  of  this  general 

ii 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


A  PHILADELPHIA  HOUSE  FRONT 


idea,  the  regular  architectural,  structural  and  deco- 
rative forms  were  used  regardless  of  their  ordinary 
structural  functions  and  associations.  In  Chicago, 


12 


AMERICAN  ARCHITECTURE  OF  TO-DAY 

on  the  other  hand,  while  many  buildings  were  de- 
signed along  the  same  lines  as  New  York,  there  was 
a  tendency  towards  a  franker  expression  in  the 
design  of  these  buildings  of  the  plain  facts  of  their 
steel  structure.  Such  is  no  longer  the  case.  The 
new  sky-scrapers,  which  have  been,  and  are  being, 
erected  in  large  numbers  in  Chicago  and  Pittsburgh, 
as  well  as  New  York,  almost  all  conform  to  the  con- 
ventional treatment,  long  since  adopted  in  the  me- 
tropolis— and  this  in  spite  of  comparatively  good- 
looking  attempts  to  solve  the  problem  within  the 
limitations  imposed  by  the  structure.  Whether  or 
not  the  American  architect  has,  in  this  instance, 
chosen  the  wrong  alternative,  he  has  at  any  rate,  for 
the  time  being,  adopted  a  comparatively  uniform 
type  for  the  design  of  the  "  sky-scrapers." 

Very  much  the  same  inference  can  be  drawn  from 
the  manner  in  which  the  later  hotels  have  been  de- 
signed. Until  recently  the  larger  hotels  of  the 
United  States  did  not  in  their  appearance  embody 
the  remotest  approach  to  a  convention.  Except  in 
one  or  two  instances  they  were  ugly  and  incongruous 
hodge-podges  of  worthless  architectural  motives. 
Apparently  nobody  cared  very  much  how  a  hotel 
looked  or  what  atmosphere  it  exhaled.  The  early 
big  American  inns,  such  as  the  Astor  and  Palmer 
houses,  were  morose  and  heavy  but  grandiose  build- 
ings, embodying,  one  might  infer,  the  idea  that 
hotels  were  a  kind  of  public  penal  institution,  from 
which  guests  must  be  denied  escape.  Even  the 
Auditorium  in  Chicago  belongs  in  this  respect  to 
the  earlier  type  of  American  hotels.  Although 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

architecturally  of  the  highest  interest,  its  fagade  pos- 
sesses none  the  less  a  grim  and  forbidding  aspect, 
which  is  out  of  keeping  with  the  uses  to  which  the 
building  is  put.  It  was  the  Waldorf-Astoria  which 
changed  all  this  and  started  hotel  facades  off  on  new 
lines.  By  reason  of  its  magnitude,  its  conspicuous- 
ness,  its  success,  and  even,  with  all  its  faults,  of  a 
certain  propriety  in  the  design,  its  architect  has 
really  established  a  fashion  in  hotel  fronts.  Since 
its  erection  both  architects  and  proprietors  of  these 
buildings  have  come  to  realise  that  one  means  of 
attracting  the  custom  of  rich  and  "smart"  people  is 
to  put  up  a  "smart"  appearance  on  the  outside  as 
well  as  on  the  inside  of  their  hotels;  and  ever  since 
some  such  attempt  has  been  made.  The  big  new 
hotels,  both  in  New  York  and  the  other  leading 
cities,  are  revised  versions  of  the  Waldorf-Astoria  or 
the  Manhattan  or  both.  Specifically  French  char- 
acteristics have  in  most  cases  been  intensified;  but 
the  parentage  is  unmistakable,  and  is  traceable  in 
the  Hotel" St.  Regis,  the  Hotel  Astor,  the  Knicker- 
bocker, in  the  larger  apartment  hotels  of  New  York, 
in  the  New  Stratford  in  Philadelphia,  the  New 
Willard  in  Washington,  the  Belvidere  in  Baltimore, 
and  even  the  Lafayette  in  Buffalo.  While  one  may 
or  may  not  like  this  sort  of  thing,  one  must  admit 
that  it  has  an  appropriately  festive  appearance,  and 
that  it  affords  an  excellent  illustration  of  the 
increased  prevalence  of  certain  specific  types  in 
American  architecture. 

The  two  foregoing  instances  suggest  that  perhaps 
the  secret  of  this  increased  prevalence  of  specific 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

types  is  the  growing  assumption  by  New  York  of  an 
actual  metropolitan  function  in  the  social  economy 
of  the  country.  From  this  point  of  view  American 
architecture  would  be  obtaining  certain  definite 
general  characteristics,  because  the  smaller  cities 
were  looking  to  New  York  for  leadership  in  matters 
of  taste.  There  is  undoubtedly  some  truth  in  this 
interpretation  of  the  facts.  New  York  is  more  the 
leader  in  matters  of  taste  than  it  ever  has  been  before. 
It  does  a  great  deal,  and  is  constantly  doing  more  to 
fix  the  standards,  such  as  they  are,  of  the  rest  of  the 
country.  But  the  extent  to  which  other  cities  look 
to  New  York  for  their  architectural  conventions 
has  some  obvious  and  significant  limitations.  New 
York  in  its  relation  to  the  rest  of  the  country  has  two 
distinguishing  characteristics:  It  is  the  city,  on 
the  one  hand,  of  the  rich  man,  the  national  corpo- 
rations, and  the  big  buildings.  On  the  other  hand  it 
is  the  port  of  entry  of  the  latest  foreign  artistic  in- 
jection. It  so  happens  at  the  present  time  that  these 
two  different  characteristics  of  New  York  have  a 
very  unequal  effect  upon  the  rest  of  the  country.  In 
all  showy  and  costly  structures,  such  as  office  build- 
ings, hotels,  and  "  palatial  residences,"  the  general 
standards  and  conventions  are  for  the  most  part  de- 
rived from  New  York;  and  this  current  of  imitation 
of  some  part  of  the  latest  foreign  architectural  in- 
jection, gives  an  impetus  to  a  kind  of  Beaux-Arts 
movement  over  the  South  and  the  West.  For  the 
most  part,  however,  the  Beaux-Arts  influence  is  con- 
fined to  New  York.  It  has  had  practically  no  effect 
upon  any  but  the  biggest  residences  and  apartment 

16 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


A  TYPE  OF  INEXPENSIVE  DWELLING 

houses.  The  smaller  dwellings  in  the  other  cities 
owe  little  to  New  York,  while  in  the  western  cities 
an  interesting  and  in  some  respects  excellent  local 
type  of  apartment  house  is  being  developed. 

The  comparative  lack  of  influence  of  New  York 
over  the  design  of  middle-class  residences  and 
apartment  houses  is  partly  due  to  the  peculiarly 
local  conditions  which  determine  such  designs  in 
the  metropolis.  New  York  is  cramped  for  space  and 
will  remain  so  until  subways,  bridges  and  tunnels 
abolish  the  impediments  to  free  communication  re- 
sulting from  its  insular  situation.  Western  cities,  on 

18 


AMERICAN  ARCHITECTURE  OF  TO-DAY 

the  other  hand,  can  expand  in  almost  any  direction 
with  the  utmost  freedom,  and  a  comparatively  poor 
resident  of  one  of  them  can  afford  to  buy  as  much 
land  in  an  eligible  location  as  a  very  rich  man  may 
in  New  York.  In  consequence  the  detached  resi- 
dence still  prevails  in  the  West  and  even  in  certain 
parts  of  the  East,  whereas  the  block  residence, 
whether  private  or  multiple,  prevails  and  will  con- 
tinue to  prevail  in  New  York.  New  York  has,  of 
course,  its  suburbs;  but  its  suburban  residences,  ex- 
cept in  a  few  choice  locations,  belong  to  an  inferior 
type.  Its  typical  dwelling  is  that  erected  on  a  lot 
measuring  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  by  one  hundred, 
and  covering  as  large  a  portion  of  that  lot  as  the  law 
allows;  and  the  successful  solution  of  the  architec- 
tural problem  offered  by  such  a  facade  contains  little 
that  is  useful  to  the  designer  of  the  detached  resi- 
dence of  the  West. 

The  influence  of  New  York  consequently  on  resi- 
dential design  does  not  cover  either  a  very  consider- 
able area  or  very  many  instances.  Some  large  seven 
and  eight-story  apartment  houses  have  recently  been 
erected  in  Washington;  and  these  buildings,  deplor- 
ably out  of  keeping  with  the  general  atmosphere  and 
appearance  of  the  city,  might  very  well  have  been 
situated  in  those  parts  of  the  West  Side  of  New 
York  most  dominated  by  the  speculative  builder  of 
flats.  Outside  of  Washington,  however,  apartment 
houses  of  this  type  are  a  rare  and  insignificant  ex- 
crescence. In  the  same  way  the  millionaires'  resi- 
dences of  the  West  are  frequently  nothing  more  than 
vulgarised  imitations  of  some  of  the  "stunning" 

19 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

dwellings  designed  by  New  York  architects  for  rich 
New  York  clients,  which  instead  of  being  "  stun- 
ning "  are  more  often  stupefying.  The  resemblance, 
such  as  it  is,  is  much  more  a  matter  of  the  interior 
than  of  the  exterior.  Their  detachment  so  com- 
pletely alters  the  conditions  under  which  they  are 
designed  that  there  is  a  corresponding  alteration  in 
their  appearance. 

The  suburban  apartment  house  of  the  West  is  a 
type  of  residence  almost  unknown  either  in  New 
York  or  its  vicinity.  The  New  York  apartment 
house  has  none  of  the  characteristics  of  good  do- 
mestic architecture.  At  its  best  it  tends  to  become  a 
copy  of  the  corresponding  French  type,  and  obtains 
some  of  the  same  effect  of  festive  publicity;  but  the 
speculative  builder  very  seldom  allows  it  to  appear 
at  its  best.  It  is  a  kind  of  residence  which  no  man 
of  taste  would  choose  unless  he  were  obliged  to  do 
so.  The  better  suburban  apartment  house  of  the 
West,  on  the  contrary,  is  obliged  to  make  itself  at- 
tractive. People  of  moderately  respectable  means 
are  not  forced  to  live  in  a  flat.  If  they  choose  to  do 
so,  it  is  not  because  they  could  not  afford  a  house; 
it  is  merely  because  they  find  a  flat  for  some  reason 
more  suitable  to  their  particular  needs.  Flats  and 
dwellings,  that  is,  are  more  nearly  on  the  same  eco- 
nomic level,  and  compete  freely  with  each  other; 
and  as  an  incident  to  this  competition,  the  builders 
of  low-priced  flats  try  harder  to  retain  some  of  the 
advantages  of  private  residences  without  surrender- 
ing the  advantages  of  all  multiple  residences.  Con- 
sequently the  suburban  apartment  house  of  the 

20 


AMERICAN  ARCHITECTURE  OF  TO-DAY 

West  is  frequently  built  free  from  neighbouring 
buildings,  is  surrounded  by  open  spaces  made  at- 
tractive with  shrubbery  and  flowers;  is  generally 
designed  in  a  distantly  Georgian  and  Jacobean  man- 
ner, and  so  presents  the  appearance  of  a  domestic 
building;  and  each  apartment  is  often  supplied  with 
a  pleasant  roomy  piazza  for  the  exclusive  use  of  its 
occupants.  It  is  also  easier  under  such  conditions  to 
plan  the  flats  so  that  the  rooms  are  larger,  better 
lighted,  and  more  effectively  distributed.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  residential  buildings  of  this  type  will  be- 
come still  more  important  in  the  future,  and  are 
destined  to  be  more  numerous  than  they  now  are 
in  the  New  York  suburbs. 

In  the  design  of  private  dwellings,  New  York  has 
no  more  general  influence  upon  the  South  and  West 
than  it  does  in  the  design  of  apartment  houses.  In 
this  respect  the  West  is  adopting  a  tradition  which 
has  been  better  preserved  in  Boston  and  Philadel- 
phia than  in  New  York,  the  tradition  of  the  good 
brick  styles.  The  advantage  which  it  derives  from 
possessing  an  abundance  of  comparatively  cheap  and 
accessible  land  cannot  be  overestimated.  The  pri- 
vate dwelling  which  forms  a  part  of  the  block  and 
tends  to  become  taller  and  deeper  constitutes  a  muti- 
lated and  discouraging  architectural  problem;  and 
it  is  particularly  discouraging  in  cities,  such  as  those 
of  England  and  the  United  States,  wherein  archi- 
tectural ignorance  and  caprice  have  not  been  regu- 
lated by  convention  or  law.  We  believe  that  the 
better  contemporary  New  York  dwelling  is  a  great 
improvement  upon  the  corresponding  grade  of 

23 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

London  dwellings,  as  well  as  upon  the  better  New 
York  dwelling  of  ten  years  or  more  ago;  but  it  has 
little  interest  from  the  present  point  of  view,  because 
it  has  not  as  yet  succeeded  in  reaching  the  respect- 
able routine  that  would  be  its  best  merit,  which  is 
the  line  of  development  we  are  now  seeking  to  trace 
in  American  design. 

The  West,  however,  is  emancipated  from  these 
disadvantageous  conditions.  Its  new  urban  dwell- 
ings, costing  from  $40,000  to  $200,000,  are  designed 
under  very  favorable  circumstances.  The  avenues 
and  boulevards  upon  which  its  handsome  houses  are 
situated  are  broad  and  well-shaded  and  admirably 
adapted  to  the  use  of  automobiles — a  conveyance 
which  will  be  extremely  effective  in  confirming  the 
use  of  this  type  of  dwelling.  Each  house  is  a  unit, 
and  is  generally  surrounded  by  sufficient  land  to 
enable  the  architect  to  enhance  his  design  by  appro- 
priate landscape  arrangements.  It  is  possible  under 
such  conditions  to  give  a  personal  and  domestic  at- 
mosphere to  the  individual  house;  which  is  just 
what  is  happening  in  the  West — particularly  in  the 
large  Middle  Western  cities. 

The  design  of  these  buildings  is  beginning  to  show 
certain  definite  characteristics.  The  use  of  brick  is 
very  general  except  in  a  few  of  the  most  expensive 
houses,  and  in  many  cases  even  these  expensive 
houses  are  no  exception  to  this  rule.  Wherever 
brick  is  used,  it  is  generally  well  used.  The  historic 
domestic  styles  appropriate  to  brick  construction 
are,  of  course,  the  Georgian  and  Jacobean,  so  that 
when  it  is  asserted  that  the  great  majority  of  these 

26 


AMERICAN'    COUNTRY    HOUSES 


AMERICAN  ARCHITECTURE  OF  TO-DAY 


RESIDENCE  ON    FERRY  STREET,    BUFFALO 

houses  are  modifications  either  of  the  Georgian  or 
Jacobean  types  of  dwelling,  they  have  been  placed 
in  an  excellent  stylistic  tradition.  Of  the  two  the 
Georgian  predominates,  both  because  of  its  Ameri- 
can associations,  and  because  it  is  better  adapted  to 
the  comparatively  modest  dimensions  of  the  great 
majority  of  these  houses.  The  Georgian  is  also 
treated  with  better  effect  because  its  forms  are  less 
difficult  to  handle  than  those  of  a  transitional  style 
like  the  Jacobean.  The  only  other  historical  domes- 
tic form  found  in  a  sufficient  number  of  examples  to 
demand  notice,  is  the  Elizabethan  timbered  gabled 

29 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

dwelling.  This  type  is  very  popular,  perhaps  more 
popular  than  the  Jacobean,  because  it  also  is  adapted 
to  houses  of  comparatively  small  cost;  and  the  archi- 
tects who  use  it  show  much  more  skill  than  formerly 
in  avoiding  the  mere  looseness  of  design  for  which 
these  irregular  styles  offer  opportunity. 

The  examples  given  above  sufficiently  illustrate 
the  truth  of  my  preliminary  statement  that  American 
architects  are  adopting  more  than  ever  certain 
stereotyped  kinds  of  design.  I  have  traced  the  pres- 
ence of  these  types  in  office  buildings,  in  the  larger 
hotels,  in  apartment  houses  and  private  dwellings. 
Examples  might  include  the  best  kind  of  factory 
buildings  and  warehouses,  and  a  large  number  of 
one-story  bank  buildings.  It  is  unnecessary,  how- 
ever, to  describe  in  any  further  detail  the  existence 
of  this  tendency  towards  increased  definition,  and  it 
only  remains  to  pass  a  proper  judgment  upon  its  sig- 
nificance and  value. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  increasing  au- 
thority of  certain  special  types  of  design  constitutes 
the  line  of  progress  for  American  architecture.  The 
architect  more  than  any  other  artist  is  dependent 
upon  precedent.  The  material  of  his  work  is  not 
derived  from  nature  or  life,  but  from  the  work  of 
his  predecessors.  His  individual  genius  counts  for 
less  than  in  the  other  arts;  the  general  social  and  the 
particular  technical  standards  count  for  more.  This 
was  particularly  true  in  the  great  periods  of  Greek 
and  Gothic  architecture,  whose  noblest  monuments 
were  almost  literally  the  work  of  communities  and 
certain  particular,  although  flexible,  forms  were 

30 


AMERICAN  ARCHITECTURE  OF  TO-DAY 

absolutely  imposed  upon  the  architects.  With  the 
Renaissance  began  a  period  of  more  conscious 
imitation  of  forms  that  had  already  been  devel- 
oped to  the  highest  degree  of  perfection.  It  gave 
the  individual  architect  a  greater  freedom  of  choice 
than  he  had  ever  had  before,  and  increased  corre- 
spondingly his  opportunity  for  merely  individual 
work.  But  it  did  not  emancipate  him  from  prece- 
dent; it  only  gave  him  a  larger  number  of  prece- 
dents from  which  to  choose.  Undoubtedly  this  very 
freedom  of  choice,  wrhich  only  reached  its  height 
during  the  last  one  hundred  years,  is  the  chief  cause 
of  the  degeneracy  of  architecture  during  the  nine- 
teenth century.  It  has  been  most  meritorious  in  those 
cases  in  which  certain  conventions  have  been  estab- 
lished, as  in  France.  It  has  been  less  so  when  the 
architect  owed  no  allegiance  to  any  authoritative 
forms.  The  architect  can  never  regain  the  compara- 
tive unconsciousness  and  single-mindedness  of  his 
Greek  and  Gothic  predecessors;  but  with  the  help  of 
a  sound  national  culture,  he  can  impose  upon  him- 
self conventions  that  will  reduce  the  area  of  arbi- 
trary choice  and  enable  him  to  devote  himself  more 
to  the  adaptation  and  improvement  than  to  the  selec- 
tion of  types  of  design. 

This  is  just  what  the  American  architect  is  now 
doing.  He  is  imposing  certain  types  of  design  upon 
himself,  and  is  concerned  more  in  appropriating 
these  types  and  in  developing  them  to  a  satisfactory 
finish  than  in  borrowing  or  trying  to  invent  new 
types.  In  using  the  phrase  "  the  American  architect  " 
in  the  description  above,  I  do  not  mean  all  Ameri- 

31 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


AN  OLDER  TYPE 


can  architects.  I  do  not  mean  even  all  the  good 
American  architects,  but  only  the  better  and  younger 
Americans  whose  work  is  becoming  more  conspic- 
uous every  day,  and  to  whom  belongs  the  immediate 
future  of  American  design.  The  older  architects, 
whose  work  during  the  past  twenty-five  years  has 
been  so  valuable  and  who  have  done  so  much  to 
raise  the  technical  standards  of  the  profession,  were 
essentially  eclectic,  and  experimented  freely  with 
many  different  types.  Their  achievements  were  of 

32 


AMERICAN  ARCHITECTURE  OF  TO-DAY 


I  •• 

A  DIFFERENCE   OF   LEVELS 


the  utmost  value  in  making  the  transition  from  an 
ignorant  and  indiscriminate  to  an  intelligent  eclecti- 
cism. They  served  to  educate  the  clients  for  whom 
they  built,  the  mechanics  who  carried  the  designs 
out,  and  the  pupils  who  continued  the  professional 
tradition.  Most  of  all  they  have  succeeded  in  edu- 
cating themselves,  for  their  work  has  shown  a  con- 
stantly growing  tendency  toward  the  adoption  of 
certain  specific  types.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that 
the  eclecticism  of  the  past  will  disappear  during  the 
period  of  American  design  now  beginning.  The 
process  of  education  is  incomplete.  The  formative 

33 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

influences  are  still  weak  and  uncertain;  a  vast  ac- 
cumulation of  bad  habits,  indifference,  low  and  easy- 
going standards  remain  to  be  reduced.  Yet  un- 
doubtedly the  younger  men  are  conscious  of  the  need 
of  giving  consistency  and  effect  to  their  work  by  the 
persistent  use  of  certain  particular  architectural 
types,  and  by  the  persistent  attempt  to  give  to  those 
types  a  value  that  is  both  newer  and  more  complete. 

I  have  described  the  growing  popularity  of  special 
types  of  design  for  special  kinds  of  buildings  as  the 
increasing  "  nationalisation  "  of  American  architec- 
ture, but  probably  that  was  going  too  far.  The 
phrase  is  intended  to  express  a  desirable  issue  faintly 
promised  rather  than  particularly  achieved.  Before 
we  can  speak  of  the  "  nationalisation  "  of  American 
architecture  we  must  not  merely  be  able  to  trace  the 
constant  use  of  certain  special  types  of  design,  but 
show  that  without  losing  their  traditional  dignity 
those  types  are  being  given  an  appropriate  local  ex- 
pression— that  they  are  living  types  constantly  gath- 
ering a  complete  consistency,  a  better  adaptation  to 
the  structure  and  the  service  of  the  building  and  a 
finer  aesthetic  propriety.  In  this  sense  of  the  word 
"  national "  American  architecture  can  only  to  a 
limited  extent  be  described  as  in  the  way  of  national- 
isation. The  long  and  difficult  task  of  adapting  the 
traditional  styles  to  the  peculiarities  of  American 
structural  methods  and  utilitarian  requirements  is 
being  more  frequently  ignored  and  evaded  than  reso- 
lutely faced. 

The  structure  of  our  buildings  and  their  design 
are  so  far  almost  completely  at  cross-purposes;  and 

34 


AMERICAN  ARCHITECTURE  OF  TO-DAY 

any  one  who  defines  good  architecture  in  terms  of 
congruity  will  find  few  signs  of  improvement  in 
recent  buildings.  But  while  we  may  not  look  for 
any  advance  in  this  very  important  respect,  our 
architects  are  nevertheless  succeeding  in  giving  their 
buildings  an  ever-increasing  propriety  and  consist- 
ency of  appearance.  When  they  design  a  hotel  they 
use  a  style  that  harmonises  with  the  way  we  feel 
when  we  are  living  for  a  few  days  away  from  home, 
freed  from  routine  and  responsibilities.  When  they 
design  a  private  dwelling  they  seek  to  give  the  build- 
ing a  style  that  is  homely,  domestic  and  refined. 
Furthermore  these  styles  are  carefully  studied  and 
are  treated  generally  with  an  eye  to  strictly  archi- 
tectural effects.  The  persistent  attempt  is  to  get  a 
building  in  which  the  mass,  the  proportion,  and  the 
detail  each  has  its  proper  value,  and  this  is  a  con- 
siderable gain  over  the  past  when  architects  sought 
merely  picturesque  effects  by  almost  ignoring  pro- 
portions, and  conceived  their  building  as  a  collection 
of  detail  on  a  large  scale. 

In  another  respect,  also,  American  architecture, 
particularly  in  the  case  of  dwellings,  may  be  said  to 
have  gro\vn  more  idiomatic.  If  structure  and  de- 
sign remain  very  much  at  cross  purposes,  plan  and 
design  are  becoming  friendlier.  The  plan  of  the 
modern  American  dwelling  differs  in  some  impor- 
tant respects  from  that  of  any  historical  type  of 
residence.  These  variations  frequently  lead  to  inter- 
esting modifications  in  the  designs,  and  consequently 
to  desirable  departures  from  mere  stylistic  purity. 
The  piazza,  for  instance,  which  is  so  necessary  in  the 

35 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


AN    AMERICAN    PIAZZA 


American  summer  climate  and  which  has  been  an 
architectural  excrescence  on  the  majority  of  country 
houses,  is  now  frequently  treated  as  an  outdoor 
room,  in  strict  subordination  to  the  main  design. 
Sometimes  it  appears  as  a  narrow  gallery  on  the  face 
of  the  house,  more  often  a  place  is  found  for  it  at 
one  or  both  ends,  its  lines  being  used  either  to  con- 
tinue those  of  the  house  or  to  vary  them  in  an  inter- 
esting way.  This  is  only  one  illustration  out  of  many 
which  might  be  used,  but  it  is  typical  of  the  more 
conscientious  manner  in  which  the  architect  attempts 
to  render  in  appropriate  architectural  terms  the 
novel  and  local  conditions  given  in  the  plans  of  his 
buildings. 

36 


AMERICAN  ARCHITECTURE  OF  TO-DAY 

It  should  be  added  that  the  adoption  of  certain 
definite  and  appropriate  types  of  design  by  the 
better  American  architects  should  help  not  only  to 
raise  the  standard  of  American  architecture,  but 
increase  its  popularity.  In  the  past  our  architects 
have  apparently  sought  to  make  their  work  im- 
pressive chiefly  by  making  it  striking;  but  if  the  im- 
pression is  to  be  widespread  as  well  as  deep,  it  is 
rather  the  familiar  than  the  "stunning"  thing  that 
counts.  The  "  people  "  are  merely  confused  by  an 
art  and  architecture  to  which  they  are  unaccustomed. 
They  may  be  "  stunned  "  for  the  moment,  but  next 
moment  they  forget  all  about  it.  On  the  other  hand 
they  are  pleased  and  convinced  by  a  kind  of  art  that 
finds  its  way  to  their  apprehension  by  means  of  their 
memories.  In  the  representative  arts,  the  subject- 
matter  represented  must  appeal  to  their  common  ex- 
perience. In  the  more  formal  and  decorative  arts 
form  must  have  the  confirmation  of  association.  The 
difficulty  with  modern  American  architecture  is 
that  it  started  with  nothing  but  vicious  associations, 
and  the  good  architects  have  been  confronted  by  the 
enormously  difficult  task  of  substituting  the  com- 
paratively good  for  the  comparatively  bad  associa- 
tions of  the  past.  In  so  doing  they  have  depended 
too  much  on  obtaining  an  interesting  variety  of 
effect,  and  too  little  upon  the  value  of  repetition  as 
an  advertisement.  Architectural  repetition  is  in  bad 
odor  in  this  country,  because  in  the  past  it  has  been 
applied  chiefly  to  such  dead  and  dreary  material  as 
brownstone  fronts.  Nevertheless  the  one  sensible 
course  for  the  future — the  one  course  which  will 

37 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

provide  both  for  a  better  quality  of  design  and  for 
a  completer  understanding  between  architect  and 
client — is  to  make  out  of  repetition  a  conviction 
and  ideal.  If  the  opportunities  for  repetition  are 
studied  with  sufficient  care  the  necessary  variety  and 
novelty  of  effect  will  take  care  of  themselves. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  TYPICAL  TOWN   HOUSE 

THE  typical  town  house  may  be  defined  as  the  sort 
of  house  one  is  compelled  to  build  on  a  narrow  city 
lot  unlighted  on  either  side;  for  though  in  many 
American  cities  there  is  vastly  more  room  than  in 
New  York  or  Boston  or  Philadelphia,  the  metropoli- 
tan type  has  a  tendency  to  stamp  itself  on  smaller 
towns  with  all  its  inconveniences.  By  a  process  of 
evolution  all  houses  of  this  sort  are  built  nowadays  on 
the  so-called  American  or  English  basement  plan, 
the  stairs  midway  between  front  and  rear,  an  "exten- 
sion "  in  the  back  for  bulter's  pantry  on  the  din- 
ing-room floor  and  bathrooms  above,  and  all  living 
rooms  taking  up  the  entire  width  of  the  lot.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  the  variations  achieved  within 
these  limits. 

The  architect  of  even  handsome  and  costly  dwell- 
ings in  a  city  like  New  York  is  confronted  by  these 
extremely  difficult  problems.  Land  in  the  best  resi- 
dential districts  is  so  expensive  that  a  man  willing 
to  pay,  say,  $100,000  for  house  and  lot  is  frequently 
obliged  to  put  up  with  very  inadequate  space.  In 
any  other  city  in  the  world,  a  sum  as  large  as  that 
would  secure  a  desirable  site  of  ample  dimensions 
and  leave  at  least  $70,000  to  be  spent  upon  the  house, 
but  in  New  York,  a  man  who  wishes  to  live  in  a 

39 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

choice  location  and  does  not  wish  to  pay  extrava- 
gantly for  it,  must  be  satisfied  with  a  lot  measuring 
not  more  than  twenty-five  by  one  hundred,  and 
frequently  not  even  as  much  as  that.  The  architect 
consequently  is  obliged  to  plan  a  house  on  a  site 
which  is  very  narrow  and  very  deep;  and  he  must 
at  the  same  time  so  dispose  his  space  as  to  afford  his 
client  every  convenience  and  a  spacious  as  well  as 
a  handsome  architectural  appearance. 

It  was  this  familiar  problem  which  confronted 
the  architect  in  designing  the  house  illustrated  on 
page  41.  The  lot,  situated  in  a  very  desirable  loca- 
tion, measures  twenty  feet  on  the  street  by  one  hun- 
dred feet  deep,  and  on  this  narrow  area,  five  times 
as  long  in  one  direction  as  it  is  in  the  other,  the 
architect  had  to  plan  a  house  which  was  to  be  both 
good-looking  and  comfortable.  Of  course,  the  neces- 
sary room  for  comfort  must  be  obtained  by  occupy- 
ing as  much  space  as  possible  in  every  available 
direction.  The  house  could  not  be  more  than 
twenty  feet  wide,  but  it  had  to  be  as  much  as  that. 
It  could  not  be  more  than  one  hundred  feet  deep; 
but  with  the  extension  it  runs  back  ninety-three  feet, 
which  makes  the  back  yard  nothing  more  than  a 
court.  It  could  not  be  more  than  five  stories  high, 
because  the  owner  did  not  want  an  elevator,  but  the 
five  stories  project  higher  than  any  other  five-storied 
house  in  the  vicinity.  Finally  this  particular  house 
not  only  has  a  basement,  but  a  sub-basement  as  well, 
which  is  unusual  in  a  dwelling  of  this  size.  Thus 
by  obtaining  as  much  space  as  possible  in  every  direc- 
tion, and  by  the  ingenious  management  of  the  space 

40 


FACADE    FOR   A  TOWN"   LOT 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

so  obtained,  the  architect  has  succeeded  in  designing 
a  residence  conveniently  planned,  fully  equipped, 
comparatively  well-lighted,  and  spacious  in  interior 
effect. 

In  designing  the  facade  he  departed  in  several 
important  respects  from  customary  arrangements. 
In  spite  of  the  fact  that  his  lot  was  only  twenty 
feet  wide,  he  was  not  afraid  to  make  his  front  almost 
ten  feet  higher  than  the  fronts  of  the  neighbouring 
buildings.  The  proportion,  consequently,  between 
the  width  and  the  height  of  his  facade  was  the  same 
as  that  between  a  building  which  is  forty  feet  wide 
and  eleven  stories  high.  The  building  was  by  way 
of  being  a  tower,  yet  it  could  not  be  treated  as  such 
and  keep  its  proper  domestic  effect.  The  architect 
was  obliged  to  adopt  a  scheme  which  would  serve  to 
make  the  height  of  the  building  less  rather  than 
more  conspicuous;  and  this  obligation  carried  with 
it  the  necessity  of  strong  horizontal  projections 
dividing  the  fagade  into  three  members.  The  usual 
result  of  such  a  division  is  that  the  lowest  member, 
consisting  of  the  ground  floor,  is  insignificant  in 
architectural  effect  compared  with  the  upper  mem- 
bers, each  of  which  consists  of  two  stories.  But  in 
this  house  this  difficulty  has  been  avoided  by  making 
the  ground  floor  much  higher  than  is  customary,  as 
may  be  seen  by  comparing  it  with  the  ground  floors 
of  the  neighbouring  buildings.  A  large  part  of  the 
extra  height  is  thrown  into  this  division  of  the  facade, 
which  occupies  a  place  in  the  composition  corre- 
sponding to  its  functional  importance. 

In  other  respects,  also,  the  architect  has  managed 

42 


THE   TYPICAL   TOWN    HOUSE 


AN  AMERICAN"  STREET 


his  design  very  cleverly.  The  three  members  of  the 
facade  are  distinguished  by  marked  and  significant 
differences  of  treatment.  On  the  ground  floor  the 

43 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

rustication  of  the  stone  work,  the  strong  arch  of  the 
doorway,  the  stoop  with  solid  posts  on  either  side, 
and  the  marquise — all  combine  to  give  the  story  an 
individual  character  appropriate  to  its  special  func- 
tion. In  the  next  division,  including  the  second  and 
third  stories,  the  treatment  looks  towards  a  certain 
grace  of  effect,  which  is  obtained  by  the  flat  masonry, 
the  balconies  and  windows  suggesting  handsome 
interiors,  and  the  motives  of  the  ornament.  The 
upper  stories  are,  of  course,  treated  as  a  roof  with 
a  dormer  in  the  centre  and  with  a  bull's-eye  above 
on  each  side.  Different,  however,  as  are  these  three 
members,  they  are  tied  together  by  the  stone  frame 
of  the  sloping  roof,  and  by  the  downward  droop  of 
the  prominent  decorative  details.  The  only  instance 
in  which  the  detail  has  been  used  in  a  very  question- 
able manner  is  that  of  the  consoles  carrying  the  lower 
balcony,  which  give  too  much  the  appearance  of 
being  externally  applied  to  the  heavily  rusticated 
masonry  behind.  The  whole  scheme,  however,  is 
extremely  compact,  considering  the  ornate  character 
of  its  design,  and  is  at  the  same  time  full  of  signifi- 
cant detail.  The  architect  is  to  be  congratulated  on 
his  careful  and  skilful  disposition  of  an  intractable 
group  of  architectural  elements. 

The  unusual  height  of  the  first  story  has  made  it 
possible  to  obtain  an  entrance  hallway  of  extraordi- 
nary dimensions.  It  is  hard  to  believe  as  one  enters 
this  hall  that  it  is  in  a  house  only  twenty  feet  wide. 
This  hallway  is  finished  in  Caen  stone,  and  is  elabo- 
rately ornamented — perhaps  rather  too  much  so;  but 
it  makes  a  handsome  approach  to  the  house.  On 

44 


4        8 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

leaving  the  entrance  hall  the  visitor  mounts  four 
steps  to  a  higher  level,  which  in  turn  leads  to  a  stair- 
way, and  the  first  landing  of  this  stairway  gives 
directly  on  a  room  of  some  importance.  This  room 
is  the  dining-room,  the  situation  of  which  in  this 
particular  place  is  the  peculiar  feature  and  virtue  of 
the  plan  of  the  house.  It  is  the  height  of  the  first 
story  that  has  enabled  the  architect  to  raise  the  level 
of  the  dining-room  above  the  level  of  the  entrance 
hall,  and  by  this  means  to  give  it  both  a  good  archi- 
tectural approach  and  convenient  arrangements 
below.  Beneath  the  hall  there  is  nothing  except  the 
boiler-room,  but  beneath  the  dining-room  are  two 
rooms,  one  below  the  other.  The  first  of  these  rooms 
is  the  kitchen,  and  the  second  the  laundry.  In  this 
way  the  architect  has  given  the  housekeeper  a  spa- 
cious kitchen  and  a  spacious  laundry  both  on  a 
twenty-foot  lot,  while  between  the  kitchen  and  the 
boiler-room  he  has  found  an  opportunity  for  a  serv- 
ants' dining  and  sitting-room.  Both  the  kitchen  and 
the  laundry  are  equipped  with  the  best  machinery 
in  the  way  of  ranges,  refrigerators,  clothes-dryers, 
and  the  like;  and  the  whole  arrangement  is  an  excel- 
lent example  of  ingenious  and  economical  house- 
planning. 

In  other  respects  also  the  plan  is  well  considered. 
The  house  measures  seventy-four  feet  from  front  to 
rear,  omitting  the  extension.  This  area  is  occupied 
by  spacious  rooms  back  and  front,  and  in  the  middle 
by  some  debatable  space,  which  varies  in  amount  and 
use  on  each  floor.  On  the  first  floor  the  doubtful  area 
is  comparatively  small,  because  the  drawing-room 

46 


UPPER  HALL  IN    HOUSE  OF   M.   NEWBORG,   ESQ.,   NEW   YORK 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

in  front  is  thirty-five  feet  deep,  and  the  library  in 
the  rear  is  twenty-eight  feet  deep.  The  hall  takes 
up  most  of  the  remaining  area,  but  space  is  found 
for  the  servants'  stairway  on  one  side  and  a  small 
retiring  room  on  the  other.  The  hall  is  lighted  and 
aired  by  a  court,  measuring  four  by  seventeen  feet, 
which  is  unusually  large  for  a  house  of  this  size  in 
New  York.  On  the  floor  above,  which  contains  a 
large  bedroom  back  and  front,  it  is  natural  that 
space  should  be  taken  from  the  bigger  apartments 
and  devoted  to  humbler  but  no  less  essential  pur- 
poses. Thus  there  are  two  bathrooms,  a  shower,  five 
or  six  closets,  and  the  servants'  stairway,  all  tucked 
into  the  space  between  the  two  rooms,  while  the 
extension  on  this  floor  naturally  becomes  a  boudoir. 
On  the  floor  above,  the  area  is,  of  course,  still  more 
subdivided.  In  the  rear  there  is  a  nursery  and  in  the 
front  a  bedroom,  the  intermediate  space  containing, 
besides  the  usual  appurtenances,  a  large  linen-room. 
The  architect  has  even  managed  to  provide  an  out- 
door playground,  for  inasmuch  as  the  extension  does 
not  run  through  this  story,  its  roof  can  be  used  as 
a  sort  of  elevated  yard.  On  the  top  floor  there  are 
not  only  four  servants'  bedrooms,  but  sewing  and 
storerooms  besides.  Throughout  the  whole  house 
every  inch  of  space  is  used,  and  the  housekeeper  has 
not  been  obliged  to  forego  any  facility  or  comfort 
because  of  the  narrow  limits  of  the  site. 

One  peculiarity  of  the  plan,  which  makes  for 
admirable  interior  effect,  is  the  octagonal  shape  of 
the  rear  rooms.  The  corners  of  the  body  of  the 
house  have  been  cut  off  both  for  the  sake  of  the  light 

48 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


BEDROOM  WITH    PLATFORM 


and  because  of  the  more  interesting  shape  which 
certain  important  apartments  would  obtain  thereby. 
Both  the  dining-room  and  the  library  are  octagonal 
in  shape,  and  this  fact  has  had  an  important  effect 
upon  the  design  of  these  rooms.  For  all  the  interiors 
of  the  house  are  as  thoroughly  designed  as  the  exte- 
rior. That  is  the  difference  between  this  house  and 
the  majority  of  modern  New  York  houses  of  the  same 
class.  As  a  usual  thing  the  rooms  of  these  houses 
are  only  decorated.  In  the  present  instance  they 
have  been,  as  we  have  said,  really  designed.  More 

So 


THE    TYPICAL    TOWN    HOUSE 


BEDROOM    WITH    OCTAGONAL    END 

or  less  appropriate  historic  styles  have  not  been 
adapted  to  the  several  different  apartments;  but  the 
purpose  has  been  to  make  each  room  look  as  if  it 
served  its  purpose,  and  at  the  same  time  look 
well. 

In  carrying  out  this  idea,  the  mantelpieces,  the 
panelling,  the  ceiling,  the  rugs  and  the  furniture  are 
all  of  the  architect's  own  selection  or  planning;  and 
in  his  dispositions  he  has  sought  for  simplicity  as 
well  as  propriety.  It  is  all  very  vigorous  work  with 
plenty  of  depth  to  the  treatment  of  the  surface  detail, 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

and  the  result  borrows  nothing  from  upholstery  or 
hangings  of  any  kind. 

Such  is  the  way  in  which  the  interior  of  houses 
should  be  handled,  and  in  this  particular  instance 
the  architect  was  as  fortunate  in  his  client  as  the 
client  in  the  architect. 

Another  dwelling  illustrated  herewith  is  similarly 
typical  of  the  narrow-lot  house,  and  yet  shows  the 
divergence  possible  from  difference  of  feeling  in 
design  and  style.  It  is  arranged,  as  usual,  with  the 
entrance  on  the  ground  floor,  with  the  dining-room 
in  the  rear  of  the  ground  floor,  and  with  the  front 
and  back  rooms  of  the  second  floor  occupied  respec- 
tively by  the  living  and  drawing-rooms.  The  house 
is  only  a  little  over  twenty  feet  wide;  but,  owing 
to  the  economical  distribution  of  the  space,  the  im- 
portant rooms  are  all  large  and  well-proportioned 
apartments.  It  is  a  remodelled  building,  with  a 
singularly  successful  combination  of  simplicity  of 
form  with  vivacity  of  effect. 

The  house  is  entered  on  the  street  level  through  a 
hall  which  is  particularly  worth  attention,  because 
it  deserves  to  be  taken  as  a  model  treatment  of  an 
entrance  hallway  to  a  house  of  this  size  and  plan. 
An  entrance  hall  is,  of  course,  fundamentally  a  pas- 
sageway between  the  street  and  the  living  rooms  of 
a  house;  but  in  many  New  York  dwellings  it  serves 
the  additional  purpose  of  providing  a  place  in  which 
guests  remove  their  coats  and  wraps.  In  the  present 
case  an  alcove,  occupying  the  space  not  required 
by  the  outer  vestibule,  offers  a  sheltered  corner  in 
which  ladies  may  lay  aside  their  cloaks,  and  thus 

52 


THE   TYPICAL   TOWN    HOUSE 


HALL   IN   MR.    NORMAN    HAPGOOO's    HOUSE,    NEW    YORK 

it  serves  excellently  its  secondary  purpose.  But  it 
serves  its  primary  purpose  still  better.  A  successful 
room  is  at  bottom  an  embodiment  of  good  man- 
ners; and  this  hallway  introduces  a  visitor  to  the 
house  in  a  manner  that  is  at  once  discreet,  sincere 
and  cordial.  The  room  is  treated  with  the  utmost 
sobriety  and  with  a  complete  lack  of  decorative 
superfluities  and  affectations ;  but  it  is  as  far  as  possi- 
ble from  being  chilly  and  dull.  In  spite  of  its 

53 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

marble  floor  and  stone  walls,  it  is  a  gracious,  almost 
a  habitable  room,  in  which  one  likes  to  linger;  and 
this  pleasant  propriety  of  aspect  may  be  traced  as 
much  to  the  poise  with  which  the  room  carries  itself, 
as  to  the  agreeable  anticipations  it  affords  that  a 
further  acquaintance  with  the  house  will  be  equally 
pleasant. 

The  room  has  the  air  of  receiving  its  visitors  gra- 
ciously because  its  colour  tone  is  warm  and  positive. 
The  artificial  Caen  stone  with  which  the  walls  are 
finished  has  been  subdued  to  a  slightly  deeper  yellow 
than  is  usually  the  case,  and  its  tint  harmonises  ad- 
mirably with  the  warm  grey  of  the  Italian  mantel- 
piece. The  plaster  above  the  stone  shows  somewhat 
too  white;  but  this  is  a  blemish  which  the  New  York 
atmosphere  will  quickly  cure.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  reserve  which  is  mixed  with  this  graciousness  of 
demeanour  comes  chiefly  from  the  avoidance  of  orna- 
mental irrelevances.  There  is  indeed  very  little 
detail  of  any  kind.  The  east  and  west  walls  are 
relieved  by  two  large  flat  panels.  The  Caen  stone 
is  appropriately  capped  by  a  moulding,  which  on 
the  piers  becomes  capitalised,  and  a  simple  plaster 
moulding  marks  the  curve  of  the  wall  into  the  ceil- 
ing. The  room  can  stand  this  absence  of  ornament 
because  it  depends  for  effect  upon  the  primary 
sources  thereof — upon  its  interesting  plan,  its  correct 
proportions,  and  its  fitness  to  its  purpose.  What  we 
have  called  the  sincerity  of  its  demeanour  is  the  out- 
come of  this  aesthetic  integrity. 

If  the  reader  would  like  to  appreciate  how  much 
of  an  achievement  this  is,  let  him  compare  the  pho- 

54 


PLAN   FOR  A  NARROW   LOT 


55 


BEDROOM   FLOOR  FOR  A  NARROW  LOT 


THE    TYPICAL   TOWN    HOUSE 

tographs  of  this  hall  with  those  of  similar  rooms 
in  houses  of  similar  size  and  plan.  While  the  other 
rooms  all  have  their  points  of  interest  and  excellence, 
their  deportment  is  in  each  case  injured  by  some 
intentional  or  unintentional  impropriety.  It  would 
be  invidious  to  name  the  owners  of  these  other  rooms; 
but  it  can  do  no  harm  to  catalogue  a  lew  of  the  ways 
in  which  the  designers  of  entrance  hallways  impair 
the  aesthetic  integrity  of  such  apartments.  In  one 
case  the  hall  of  a  house  rather  smaller  in  size  has 
been  made  charming  with  a  number  of  amusing 
decorative  episodes;  but  these  incidents  are  so  promi- 
nent that  the  total  impression  is  that  of  a  room  which 
is  rather  affectedly  pretty.  In  another  the  scale  of 
the  hall  was  such  as  to  constitute  an  introduction  to 
a  large  and  "  palatial  "  house  rather  than  one  erected 
on  a  twenty-foot  lot.  In  another  instance  the  walls  of 
a  very  carefully  designed  hall  were  disfigured  with  an 
eruption  of  bloated  ornament  positively  distressing 
to  anybody  whose  eye  has  not  been  perverted  by  false 
training.  In  a  fourth  instance,  a  very  reserved  and 
gentlemanly  room,  finished  in  the  same  greyish  tone 
as  that  of  the  house  in  question,  was  marred  by  the  red 
brick  with  which  the  chimney  was  lined.  In  still 
another  the  integrity  of  the  effect  was  injured  be- 
cause the  entrance  hall  was  separated  from  the  stair- 
way landing  by  a  wooden  railing  of  Colonial  design, 
which  was  totally  out  of  keeping  with  the  stone 
panelling  of  the  hall  and  its  marble  floors.  The 
catalogue  might  be  continued ;  but  the  foregoing  will 
give  the  reader  some  idea  of  the  mistakes  which  have 
been  actually  made  in  the  halls  of  houses,  all  of  them 

57 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

about  twenty  feet  wide  and  all  of  them  designed  as 
a  transitional  apartment  between  the  street  and  the 
living-rooms. 

One  of  the  happiest  features  of  the  hall  in  the 
house  under  discussion  is  its  method  of  communica- 
tion with  the  stair-landing  and  with  the  passageway 
to  the  dining-room.  On  that  side  of  the  room  the 
wall  is  broken  into  three  arches,  through  one  of 
which  passage  is  obtained,  while  the  other  two  are 
enclosed  up  to  a  height  of  about  three  feet  by  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  wall.  Thus  the  identity  of  the  hall 
is  preserved,  while  at  the  same  time  one's  eye  is 
tempted  to  look  into  the  rest  of  the  house.  The 
passageway  to  the  dining-room,  which  is  reached  by 
walking  up  the  two  steps  and  through  the  arch,  is 
paved  with  Moravian  tiles,  and  the  railing  of  the 
stairway  is  an  excellent  example  of  modern  wrought- 
iron  design.  The  stairway  itself  is  of  wood.  Stone 
would  have  been  more  in  keeping;  but  there  are 
obvious  reasons  why  an  architect  cannot  use  as  much 
stone  as  he  would  like.  The  iron  railing  does  not 
rest  upon  the  wooden  stairs,  as  a  wooden  railing 
might,  but  maintains  its  character  by  being  fastened 
into  the  sides  of  ihe  stair  treads. 

I  have  dwelt  chiefly  upon  the  entrance  hallway, 
because  the  illustrations  of  this  room  show  the  reader 
really  what  it  is,  and  he  can  check  my  observations 
with  his  own.  In  the  other  rooms  there  is  very  little 
design  which  does  not  depend  chiefly  on  the  use  of 
colours;  and  illustrations  in  black  and  white  cannot 
help  the  reader  to  appreciate  a  scheme  of  decoration 
which  depends  so  largely  upon  what  the  reproduc- 

58 


v 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

tion  fails  to  show.  A  reproduction  of  one  room  in 
colours  would  supply  a  fair  notion,  not  of  the  quality 
of  the  different  tones  in  which  the  room  is  finished, 
but  of  their  relative  value.  The  effect  is  derived 
from  the  rich  red  pattern  fabric  on  the  wall,  the  grey 
of  the  mantlepiece,  and  the  dull  blue  with  which 
the  spaces  between  shallow  beams  of  the  ceiling  have 
been  filled. 

It  should  be  remarked  also  that  in  this  house  the 
error  of  overcrowding  the  rooms  with  furniture  and 
ornaments — the  besetting  defect  of  the  great  major- 
ity of  contemporary  houses — has  not  been  commit- 
ted. The  sense  of  space  and  the  proper  relative 
importance  of  the  architecture  of  the  room  are 
always  preserved. 


60 


THE  AMERICAN   COUNTRY   ESTATE 

WITH  a  few  exceptions  "  great  American  estates  " 
are  the  creation  of  the  past  twelve  years.  The  major- 
ity of  them  are  probably  not  more  than  five  or  six 
years  old.  Formerly  the  well-to-do  American  satis- 
fied his  craving  for  country  residence  with  a  villa 
at  Newport  or  else\vhere.  These  villas  sometimes 
assumed  "  palatial "  dimensions,  and  were  decorated 
on  a  scale  of  princely  splendour;  yet  they  remained 
none  the  less  villas — country  houses  erected  for  habi- 
tation during  a  few  months  in  the  summer  and 
generally  surrounded  by  a  comparatively  small 
amount  of  land.  But  of  late  years  Americans  who 
could  afford  it  have  been  showing  a  disposition  to 
live  in  the  country  for  more  than  a  few  summer 
months  and  to  take  more  pleasure  in  the  character- 
istic occupations  of  country  life.  The  villa  with  its 
few  acres  of  land  no  longer  satisfies  their  needs. 
They  \vant  big  country  places,  equipped  with  all  the 
conveniences  and  properties  belonging  to  the  great 
English  estates.  A  survey  of  great  American  estates 
would  show  the  manner  in  which  they  have  satisfied 
this  want,  and  give  one  the  opportunity  of  making 
certain  general  comments  on  the  tendencies  exhib- 
ited by  the  design  of  these  country  places. 

The  most  obvious  comment  would  be  that  these 

63 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

"  great  American  estates  "  are  estates  more  by  way  of 
assumption  than  of  architectural  achievement.  They 
are,  indeed,  large  enough  and  conspicuous  enough 
to  be  called  without  exaggeration  an  estate  of  the 
country;  but  in  certain  other  respects  they  have 
failed  to  qualify  for  that  dignity,  and  have  remained, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  architectural  design,  more 
in  the  lowly  position  of  villas.  When  a  villa  is  being 
built  upon  an  acre  or  two  of  land,  the  house  is, 
of  course,  the  thing,  and  whatever  treatment  the 
grounds  receive  is  wholly  subordinate  to  the  situa- 
tion, the  scale  and  the  composition  of  the  building. 
On  the  other  hand  when  a  residence  is  erected  on  an 
estate  of  five  hundred  acres,  the  house  should  become 
merely  an  incident  in  the  layout  of  the  whole  estate. 
The  land  should  be  planned  in  reference  to  all  of 
the  requirements  of  the  owner,  and  the  location  and 
the  design  of  the  house  should  be  subordinate  to  the 
exigencies  of  such  a  plan.  The  layout  would  bring 
with  it  inevitably  a  certain  treatment  of  the  grounds 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  house,  and  of  the 
flower-garden,  into  which  the  house,  like  any  other 
architectural  feature,  would  be  settled.  It  is  evident, 
however,  in  the  case  of  these  American  "  estates," 
no  such  course  has  been  followed.  They  have  been 
laid  out  much  as  the  villa  plots  of  two  or  three  acres 
used  to  be  laid  out.  No  sufficient  advantage  has 
been  taken  of  the  fact  that  the  owner  of  the  estate 
controls  probably  all  of  the  surrounding  landscape, 
and  is  in  a  position  to  take  the  whole  of  the  estate  as 
his  unit  of  treatment.  The  design  of  the  house  is  not 
adjusted  to  the  layout  of  the  land.  On  the  contrary, 

64 


THE    AMERICAN    COUNTRY    ESTATE 


THE    EXD  OF   A   GARDEX 


the  layout  of  the  land  is  adapted  to  the  location 
and  the  design  of  the  house — both  of  which  are 
selected  or  prepared  without  much  reference  to  the 
plan  of  the  estate  considered  as  a  whole.  It  is  the 
house  which  the  American  considers  first,  last  and 
al\vays — no  matter  whether  the  house  be  a  villa  or  a 
palace  in  a  park. 

65 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

The  overwhelming  majority  of  American  house- 
owners  would  undoubtedly  fail  to  appreciate  the 
force  of  any  criticism  of  American  methods  of  design 
based  upon  the  foregoing  limitation.  They  would 
take  it  as  a  matter  of  course  that  the  house  was  the 
thing,  and  that  any  landscape  treatment  should  be 
subordinated  to  the  design  of  the  house;  and  the  atti- 
tude which  they  have  instinctively  taken  in  this 
matter  is  the  natural  result  of  their  whole  point  of 
view  towards  country  life.  The  owners  of  the  big 
English  estates  live  in  the  country,  and  sojourn  for 
some  months  of  each  year  in  the  town.  The  owners 
of  the  large  American  estates  are  still  essentially 
townsfolk,  who  are  only  sojourning  for  a  few  months 
of  each  year  in  the  country.  The  period  of  this 
sojourn  is  longer  than  it  used  to  be;  their  houses  are 
kept  open  all  winter,  and  are  occupied  frequently 
for  week-end  parties.  Still  their  relation  to  the 
country  remains  essentially  casual  and  artificial. 
They  raise  a  few  vegetables  for  their  own  table,  a 
little  corn  for  their  stock,  as  many  cows  and  horses 
as  they  need  for  their  own  use,  and  flowers  enough 
to  decorate  their  houses.  These  things  are  merely 
the  conveniences  and  properties  of  country  life,  the 
care  of  which  is  turned  over  to  hired  employees. 
The  point  of  view  is  as  different  as  possible  from  that 
of  an  English  country  proprietor,  who  generally 
derives  an  income  from  his  estate,  and  is  attached  to 
it  by  all  sorts  of  family  and  personal  ties,  and  whose 
house  has  settled  down  into  an  architectural  efflores- 
cence of  a  neatly  parted  and  combed  landscape. 

To  the  well-to-do  American,  on  the  other  hand, 

66 


THE   AMERICAN    COUNTRY    ESTATE 


PAVILION    AND   GARDEN,      FAULKNER   FARM 

his  estate  is  only  one  of  the  spoils  of  his  financial  con- 
quests. He  may  take  a  genuine  interest  in  certain 
country  sports;  but  beyond  that  in  "  returning  to  the 
country"  he  is  merely  adapting  himself  to  a  tradition 
which  his  common  sense  tells  him  is  a  good  thing  for 
himself  and  his  children.  The  country  means  to 
him  a  country  house  within  an  hour  or  two  of  New 

6? 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

York;  and  the  architect  whom  he  employs  inevitably 
adapts  himself  to  his  client's  point  of  view.  The 
estate  generally  contains  a  hill  overlooking  the  sur- 
rounding country,  which  is  the  inevitable  site  of  the 
dwelling,  because  our  American  barons,  like  the 
feudal  nobility  of  old,  prefer  to  perch  their  castles 
high,  and  have  their  domains  at  their  feet.  They 
wish  to  see,  and  to  be  seen.  The  house  becomes  the 
most  conspicuous  object  in  the  landscape,  and  the 
pervading  purposes  of  the  landscape  design  will  be 
to  give  access  to  the  house,  and  when  there  to  com- 
mand, the  view.  Indeed  as  a  rule  nothing  more  than 
this  is  possible.  The  crest  of  the  hills  rarely  contains 
enough  space  for  any  very  elaborate  and  well-organ- 
ised landscape  treatment.  The  garden  is  merely  an 
incident  to  the  view,  and  its  minor  beauties  cannot 
compete  with  the  great  effects  of  distance,  of  sun- 
shine and  shadow,  of  cloud  and  foliage,  of  varied 
colours  and  solid  form,  which  a  fine  big  view  offers. 
Of  course  there  are  many  estates  the  residences 
whereof  are  situated  on  comparatively  level  ground, 
and  in  which  a  better  opportunity  is  provided  to  de- 
sign a  house  and  garden  the  aesthetic  purpose  of 
which  is  less  spectacular  and  more  domestic  and  sub- 
stantial; but  these  opportunities  betray  just  as  plainly 
the  pre-occupation  of  the  owner  and  the  architect. 
The  grounds  are  generally  slurred.  The  garden  and 
the  other  landscape  accessories  are  inadequate  to  the 
scale  of  the  house.  The  buildings  and  the  architec- 
tural "features"  and  furniture  are  too  conspicuous 
in  the  total  effect.  The  planting  is  for  the  most  part 
ill-managed  and  insufficient.  One  rarely  gets  any 

68 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

sense  from  these  estates,  as  one  does  from  the  Italian 
villas  and  their  gardens  or  from  the  English  country 
mansions,  that  the  architecture  belongs  to  the  land- 
scape. In  the  case  of  the  Italian  villas,  their  propri- 
ety as  country  houses  is  fundamentally  a  matter  of 
intelligent  design.  In  the  case  of  English  mansions, 
it  is  fundamentally  a  matter  of  persistent  and  whole- 
some country  life  on  the  part  of  their  proprietors. 
But  whatever  the  cause,  the  result  is  a  harmony  be- 
tween the  house  and  its  environment  resulting  neither 
from  a  mutilation  of  nature  on  the  one  hand,  nor 
from  any  architectural  irregularities  on  the  other. 
The  comparative  ill-success  of  American  land- 
scape design  is  partly  due  to  the  artificial  point  of 
view  toward  country  life  that  takes  it  as  a  Saturday- 
to-Monday  variety-show;  and  it  is  partly  due  to  the 
inexperience  of  American  architects  in  this  branch 
of  design.  They  fully  intend  to  tie  their  houses  well 
into  the  landscape,  and  give  the  immediate  and  natu- 
ral surroundings  of  the  house  a  pleasurable  and 
habitable  form ;  but  they  have  to  contend  with  many 
difficulties.  The  American  landscape,  even  in  the 
older  parts  of  the  country,  is  generally  unkempt,  and 
does  not  lend  itself  as  readily  to  formal  treatment  as 
does  the  typical  English  or  Continental  landscape. 
The  owners  of  the  big  estates  rarely  appreciate  the 
scale  on  which  the  landscape  architecture  should  be 
laid  out,  and  the  patience  necessary  to  obtain  a  com- 
plete and  consummate  effect.  They  want  ready- 
made  estates.  Finally  the  leading  American  house 
architects  have,  with  a  few  exceptions,  a  good  deal 
to  learn  about  the  technique  of  landscape  design. 

70 


THE    AMERICAN    COUNTRY    ESTATE 


A    GARDEN    PATH 


So  far  as  the  large  house  itself  is  concerned,  a  con- 
vention has  been  established  which  is  in  the  main  a 
good  one,  but  the  designing  of  gardens  is  still  in  an 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

early  experimental  stage.  The  stage  properties  are 
collected  in  abundance.  There  is  no  lack  of  per- 
golas, fountains,  well-heads,  gazebos,  statuary,  and 
pottery;  but  as  like  as  not  they  are  indiscriminately 
placed.  The  architectural  features,  are,  however, 
generally  somewhat  better  managed  than  the  plant- 
ing, which  frequently  looks  as  if  an  Irish  gar- 
dener had  been  given  some  vague  general  direc- 
tions, or  as  if  the  lady  of  the  house  had  considered 
that  it  was  a  woman's  business  to  make  the  garden 
green.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  lady  of 
the  house,  in  case  she  has  her  own  way,  generally 
paints  the  garden  yellow  and  red  rather  than  green. 
Her  idea  usually  is  merely  to  get  as  much  bloom  as 
possible;  and  this  she  does  at  a  sacrifice  of  those 
masses  of  foliage  which  are  absolutely  necessary  to 
give  mass,  body  and  depth  to  a  large  garden. 

We  Americans  are  too  apt  to  believe  we  can 
achieve  a  complicated  and  admirable  result  merely 
by  virtue  of  good  intentions.  We  assume  that  because 
the  owners  and  the  architects  of  these  large  estates 
have  sought  in  good  faith  to  rival  the  classic  exam- 
ples of  landscape  architecture,  and  because  in  so 
doing  they  have  created  houses,  gardens,  and  estates, 
according  to  some  sort  of  general  plan,  they  have 
already  succeeded.  But  these  first  attempts  should 
be  regarded  not  as  successful  achievements,  but  as 
well-intended  experiments.  Before  the  experiment 
can  reach  the  stage  of  mature  and  finished  accom- 
plishment, the  owners  of  these  estates  must  have 
learned  to  live  in  the  country,  and  have  come  to 
regard  their  estates  as  something  more  than  the  spoils 

72 


A  TERRACE,        FAULKNER  FARM 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

of  their  triumph  and  as  the  scenery  of  their  social 
exploits;  they  must  have  learned  literally  and  meta- 
phorically to  cultivate  their  gardens.  Country  life, 
if  it  means  anything  except  a  vacation  or  a  shifting 
of  the  scene  for  a  round  of  city  sports,  should  mean  a 
patient,  leisurely,  submissive,  and  even  a  contempla- 
tive habit  of  mind.  Nature  cannot  be  hurried  or 
bullied  or  bought  into  yielding  her  fruits,  intellec- 
tual or  material ;  and  the  owners  of  these  country 
estates  have  hitherto  been  as  a  rule  trying  to  buy  their 
way  into  her  treasure-house.  With  the  help  of  their 
architects  they  have  made  a  fine  show  of  succeeding; 
but  no  matter  how  much  the  owners  of  these  houses 
mistake  the  appearance  of  success  for  its  reality,  it  is 
very  important  for  American  architecture  that  dis- 
interested observers  should  not  make  the  same  mis- 
take. 

It  would  be  equally  a  mistake  to  believe  that  the  de- 
sign of  American  country  estates  has  made  an  entirely 
false  start.  Undoubtedly  the  chief  concern  of  their 
designers,  both  as  regards  the  interior  and  the  exterior 
of  the  houses,  is  to  make  a  fine  big  show — and  once 
this  show  has  been  obtained  they  do  not  stop  to  con- 
sider how  far  this  splendour  of  appearance  is  likely 
to  prove  permanently  satisfactory.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
it  is  sure  to  be  as  little  satisfactory  in  the  long  run 
as  any  other  stage-setting.  Life  in  a  millionaires' 
"  colony  "  at  Newport  may  be  turned  into  a  spectacle, 
but  genuine  country  life  must  become  something  else. 
None  the  less  it  has  for  the  present  a  certain  kind  of 
suitability.  It  pleases  the  tastes  and  meets  the  needs 
of  the  people  who  own  these  estates;  and  it  performs 

74 


PAVILION   AXD   RESIDEXCE 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

these  services  in  a  way  which  is  on  the  whole  aesthet- 
ically meritorious.  The  American  business  man 
wants  the  strong  sensation  of  magnificent  domestic 
surroundings;  and  he  believes  that  he  can  make  this 
magnificence  authentic  by  deriving  it  from  the  forms 
and  relics  of  European  palaces.  Neither  are  the 
fruits  of  this  conviction  so  inappropriate  as  they 
seem.  The  American  millionaire  sometimes  controls 
resources  as  large  as  the  personal  revenues  of  a  Euro- 
pean prince;  and  he  possesses  by  right  an  analogous, 
if  not  a  similar,  social  outlook.  If  he  has  no  social 
inferiors,  he  also  has  no  social  superiors.  He  is  free 
to  express  his  tastes  without  the  fear  which  a  Euro- 
pean "bourgeois"  must  always  feel  of  being  pre- 
sumptuous and  ridiculous.  When  such  a  man  finds 
himself  in  the  possession  of  more  money  than  he  can 
spend  it  is  no  wonder  that  he  adapts  his  habitation 
to  his  income  rather  than  to  his  occupations  and  cus- 
toms. He  is  full  of  the  pride  of  life  and  the  self- 
confidence  of  success,  and  has  no  one  to  consult  but 
his  wife. 

Of  course  he  may  have  to  consult  his  architect  too; 
but  the  architect  has  no  call  to  pluck  the  aesthetic 
ambition  of  his  client.  He  can  only  accept  a  condi- 
tion of  this  kind  and  make  the  best  of  it.  His  first 
duty  is  to  design  and  decorate  a  house  which  will 
please  and  interest  its  owner  not  only  because  he  has 
no  chance  of  personal  success  on  any  other  footing, 
but  because  it  is  right  and  appropriate  that  a  man's 
house  should  be  the  sort  of  thing  a  man  likes.  If  the 
sort  of  thing  a  man  likes  is  hopelessly  meretricious, 
an  architect  can  decline  to  fill  the  bill,  but  if  he 

76 


THE   AMERICAN    COUNTRY    ESTATE 

agrees  to  fill  the  bill,  he  is  also  obliged  to  cut  the 
clothes  to  fit  the  man.  Then  the  architect  himself  is 
not  prone  to  be  a  person  of  ascetic  tastes.  As  like  as 
not  his  preferences  will  run  in  the  direction  of  the 
"stunning"  thing;  and  if  his  client  wants  a  howling 
palace,  why  should  he  deny  the  demand?.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  of  course,  he  does  not  deny  the  de- 
mand; he  merely  fills  it  to  the  best  of  his  ability; 
and  his  ability  is  frequently  very  considerable — par- 
ticularly so  far  as  the  design  of  the  house  alone  is 
concerned. 

The  demand  of  the  rich  American  that  his  house 
and  its  surroundings  be  made  interesting  to  him  is 
perfectly  legitimate;  and  in  the  long  run  it  will  be 
a  good  thing  for  American  domestic  architecture 
that  a  positive  and  lively  standard  of  aesthetic  effect 
has  been  thereby  popularised  and  established.  No 
matter  what  the  penalty,  we  do  not  want  in  this  coun- 
try a  prevailing  convention  of  house  embellishment 
whose  greatest  merit  consists  in  a  sort  of  unobtrusive 
refinement.  Since  we  are  young,  it  is  better  to  be  a 
little  barbarous  than  prematurely  sober.  Assuming 
that  the  better  Americans  will  be  capable  of  assimi- 
lating a  sound  sense  of  the  aesthetic  proprieties,  the 
barbarism  may  become  informed  without  any  loss  of 
vitality.  Indeed  the  "  palatial  "  period  of  American 
domestic  architecture  is  already  on  the  wane.  The 
newer  houses,  while  they  still  proclaim  loudly  their 
owners'  opulence,  indicate  the  influence  of  better 
ideas  of  propriety,  architectural  and  social;  and  it 
may  be  confidently  expected  that  the  future  move- 
ment will  run  in  the  same  direction. 

77 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

While,  however,  the  "  palatial "  house  is  losing 
some  of  its  noisier  improprieties,  it  is  not  the  houses 
of  the  very  rich  which  constitute  the  best  contempo- 
rary achievement  of  American  domestic  architecture 
or  its  best  hope  for  the  future.  These  houses  receive 
most  attention  because  they  are  the  most  spectacular, 
and  because  their  proprietors  are  the  financial  heroes 
of  the  day;  but  they  are  not  intrinsically  the  most 
interesting.  Their  owners  frequently  want  a  good 
thing,  and  their  architects  are  skilful;  but  both  good 
intentions  and  skill  tend  to  be  vitiated  by  the  fact 
that  whatever  else  the  houses  express  they  must  inevi- 
tably express  superabundant  wealth.  Americans  do 
everything  with  their  wealth  except  "forget  it." 
The  result  is  that  there  is  too  much  of  everything— 
too  much  gilt,  too  much  furniture,  too  much  uphol- 
stery, too  much  space,  too  many  styles,  too  much 
ceiling.  What  these  houses  and  grounds  require  is  not 
a  negative  refinement,  but  a  thoroughgoing  simplifi- 
cation. In  many  cases  comparatively  simple  archi- 
tectural schemes  have  been  smothered  by  a  multitude 
of  irrelevant  and  unnecessary  trappings;  in  other 
cases  the  design  itself  needs  simplifying.  Wherever 
the  over-richness  and  elaboration  comes  in,  the  great 
necessity  with  which  every  collection  of  these  houses 
impresses  the  observer,  is  this  necessity  for  more 
simplicity;  and  in  houses  built  by  the  better  Ameri- 
can architects  for  well-to-do  people  who  are  not 
inebriated  by  their  opulence  one  is  much  more  apt 
to  find  designs  that  are  simple  without  being  atten- 
uated. 

The    most    interesting    contemporary    American 

78 


THE   AMERICAN    COUNTRY    ESTATE 


AN    EXAMPLE   OF   TRUE    STYLE 

country  houses  are  apt  to  be  those  which  cost  be- 
tween twenty  thousand  and  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars.  When  their  owners  spend  less 
than  twenty  thousand  dollars,  it  is  rare  that  an  archi- 
tect in  good  standing  is  employed,  because  his  fees 
are  proportionately  larger  for  an  inexpensive  than 
for  an  expensive  job.  The  small  house-builder  has  an 

79 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

impression,  not  altogether  erroneous,  that  the  modest 
house  does  not  get  its  fair  share  of  attention  in  the 
big  office;  and  even  in  those  offices  which  do  give 
their  best  services  to  the  small  client  it  is  unusual  that 
a  really  complete  house  and  garden  design  can  be 
realised  for  twenty  thousand  dollars.  On  the  other 
hand,  as  already  pointed  out,  the  owner  of  a  country 
place  that  costs  several  hundred  thousand  dollars  or 
more,  generally  wants  his  money  to  make  a  big  show, 
with  a  result,  which,  however  admirable  and  inter- 
esting in  certain  respects,  betrays  its  hybrid  origin 
in  its  flamboyant  appearance.  The  formula  for 
this  result  is  a  million  dollars  of  building  enriched 
with  historical  relics  and  tempered  by  architectural 
academies,  but  the  house  which  costs  between  twen- 
ty-five thousand  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars  has  a  fairer  chance.  When  it  is  given  to  a 
good  architect,  which  unfortunately  is  not  often  the 
case,  it  at  once  provides  a  decent  opportunity  without 
dispensing  with  the  salutary  necessity  of  economy. 
Such  a  house  is  more  likely  to  be  thoroughly  de- 
signed than  is  the  bigger  or  the  smaller  house- 
designed,  that  is,  without  reference  either  to  irrele- 
vant and  oppressive  superfluities  on  the  one  hand  or 
mutilating  omissions  on  the  other.  The  economic 
scale  of  a  house  of  this  class  harmonises  with  the 
normal  life  of  a  well-to-do  American  family;  and  it 
has  the  chance  at  least  of  reaching  the  final  grace 
and  propriety  of  a  domestic  building — a  propriety 
which  is  constituted  as  much  by  integrity  in  the  own- 
er's tastes  and  manners  as  by  the  strictly  architectural 
skill  of  its  designer. 

80 


A  PERGOLA 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

It  should  never  be  forgotten  that  the  making  of 
the  consummate  residence  depends  as  much  upon  the 
prevalence  of  right  ideas  and  good  taste  among 
house-owners  as  upon  the  ability  of  the  architect  to 
design  a  good-looking  and  appropriate  house  and 
grounds.  The  future  of  American  public  and  com- 
mercial architecture  rests  chiefly  with  the  architects. 
Limited  as  they  are  in  many  directions  by  the  igno- 
rance of  politicians,  and  the  indifferent  or  meretri- 
cious taste  of  business  men,  they  are  gaining  authority 
which  will  enable  them  to  make  American  public 
and  industrial  buildings  edifying  and  beautiful  or 
the  reverse.  But  in  the  case  of  residences,  all  that 
the  architect  can  do  is  to  supply  a  well-formed  and 
fitting  frame  and  scheme  to  a  picture  which  must  be 
finished  by  the  people  who  live  in  the  house.  No 
matter  how  intelligently  the  designer  may  adapt  a 
dwelling  to  its  inhabitants'  manner  of  living  it  will 
not  aesthetically  belong  to  them  until  they  have  added 
to  its  effect  the  imprint  of  the  kind  of  life  they  lead 
and  the  sort  of  domestic  appurtenances  they  prefer. 
This  is  not  so  much  the  case  in  a  country  the  finest 
dwellings  of  which  belong  to  an  aristocratic  class 
with  certain  common  traditions,  as  to  the  manner 
and  symbols  of  their  domestic  life.  In  such  cases  the 
house  will  require  only  an  impressive  impersonality 
of  effect,  which  is  attainable  by  an  architect.  But 
Americans  are  individuals  before  they  are  members 
of  any  class  or  social  group,  and  the  individual  note 
is  necessary  to  any  American  dwelling  that  is  all  an 
American  dwelling  should  be. 

The  difficulty  with  many  interesting  residences  is 

82 


HOUSE   AND   TERRACE,        FAULKNER   FARM 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN   OR   COUNTRY 

that  a  good  architect  has  either  had  too  much  or  too 
little  to  do  with  them.  In  the  former  case  the  effect, 
however  beautiful,  is  necessarily  impersonal  and 
perhaps  a  little  frigid, — as  if  the  fire  had  gone  out 
on  the  aesthetic  hearth,  or  the  family  were  afraid  to 
warm  their  hands  at  the  blaze.  A  man  should  not 
be  afraid  of  his  house  any  more  than  he  should  be 
afraid  of  his  butler.  A  house  with  which  its  owner 
dares  not  be  familiar  may  be  good-looking  but  can 
hardly  be  gracious  and  charming.  On  the  other 
hand  there  are  many  houses  the  owners  of  which 
have  insisted  upon  planning  and  decorating  the  inte- 
rior and  laying  out  the  grounds  with  only  clerical 
assistance  from  an  architect;  and  it  cannot  be  too 
emphatically  asserted  that  this  is  not  the  proper  way 
to  secure  an  excellent,  much  less  a  consummate  re- 
sult. Remember  that  I  am  confining  this  part  of  my 
discourse  to  "  interesting  residences."  Houses  which 
express  merely  vulgar  or  commonplace  proprietors 
are  excluded.  The  point  is  that  even  people  of  good 
taste  and  genuine  likes  and  dislikes  about  the  appear- 
ance of  their  homes  probably  make  a  mistake  in  dis- 
pensing with  the  services  of  a  good  architect.  It  is 
possible,  of  course,  that  an  amateur  may  have  a  natu- 
ral instinct  for  design  that  will  enable  him  to  do 
better  for  himself  than  anybody  else,  however  skil- 
ful; but  ninety-nine  times  out  of  one  hundred  the 
training,  the  experience  and  the  gift  of  the  profes- 
sional man  is  necessary  to  give  any  complete  form  to 
the  result.  Without  the  architect  the  result  may  be 
individual  and  charming;  but  it  can  only  rarely  pos- 
sess that  highest  quality  of  style. 

84 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

This  quality  of  style  is  of  all  aesthetic  qualities  the 
most  difficult  to  describe.  It  is  so  simple  and  un- 
mistakable in  its  effect,  yet  so  complicated  and 
evasive  in  its  origin.  I  cannot  attempt  to  define  it, 
but  perhaps  some  idea  of  its  meaning  can  be  inferred 
from  the  enumeration  of  several  important  elements 
of  effect,  the  omission  of  any  one  of  which  would  rob 
a  dwelling  of  true  style.  It  implies  for  one  thing  a 
certain  integrity  in  the  formal  design  of  a  building— 
the  working  out  of  an  appropriate  architectural  idea 
in  a  manner  both  consistent  and  interesting.  It  im- 
plies in  addition  to  this  fundamental  correctness  of 
design  the  power  to  awaken  relevant  and  suggestive 
memories.  A  "  stylish  "  house  must  express  the  deri- 
vation of  our  own  good  domestic  manners  from  cer- 
tain former  distinguished  ways  of  living  by  recalling 
without  necessarily  copying  the  architectural  forms 
and  materials  associated  with  these  desirable  man- 
ners. All  this  can  be  contributed  by  an  architect; 
but  he  cannot  contribute  the  final  touch  of  propriety 
— the  sense  that  the  house  is  a  house  in  which  an 
individual  with  some  integrity  of  life  and  taste  has 
dwelt.  The  inhabitants  of  the  house  must  complete 
the  picture  planned,  framed  and  sketched  in  by  the 
designer;  and  the  fact  that  the  designer  has  contrib- 
uted so  much  need  not  diminish  in  any  way  the  ulti- 
mate individuality  and  charm  of  the  result.  It 
merely  gives  to  the  total  effect  style  as  well  as 
expressiveness. 

A  house  and  garden  can  hardly  be  permanently 
satisfactory  without  some  such  quality.  Americans 
build,  it  is  true,  for  only  one  generation ;  and  the 

86 


THE    AMERICAN    COUNTRY    ESTATE 

children  destroy  or  neglect  the  structures  which  their 
fathers  have  reared  with  labour  and  love.  But  it 
may  be  hoped  that  the  better  country  residence  of 
to-day  will  commend  itself  to  the  next  generation 
by  its  power  of  satisfying  certain  permanent  domestic 
and  aesthetic  demands.  This  power  cannot  be  granted 
to  houses  and  gardens  which  are  intensely  and  exclu- 
sively individual.  Such  a  house  dies  with  the  man 
or  woman  that  makes  it.  Indeed,  frequently  its  pro- 
priety, the  mood  which  it  embodies,  no  longer  pleases 
even  its  owner,  and  consequently  instead  of  being 
mellowed  and  confirmed  by  the  dignity  of  years,  it  is 
totally  transformed.  But  a  house  which  possesses 
style,  which  answers  permanent  aesthetic  needs  by 
the  use  of  appropriate  and  pleasurable  forms — such 
a  house  may  be  perpetuated  by  its  own  perennial 
value,  and  by  its  o\vn  flexible  charm.  The  so- 
called  "  Colonial "  house  has  been  the  only  type  of 
American  residence  to  possess  anything  of  this  qual- 
ity; and  "Colonial"  houses  are  preserved  for  this 
reason.  On  the  other  hand  the  neo-classic  temples 
and  the  Gothic  villas  which  succeeded  the  "  Colo- 
nial" house  appealed  only  to  an  arbitrary  and  evan- 
escent architectural  whim,  and  survive  only  because 
of  possible  economic  value.  In  regard  to  the  houses 
of  the  present  day,  it  looks  as  if  many  of  the  most 
expensive  "  palaces"  will  fail  to  be  interesting  at 
the  end  of  thirty  or  forty  years.  I  certainly  hope  that 
such  will  be  the  case,  because  these  houses,  whatever 
their  architectural  merits  and  temporary  propriety, 
are  places  in  which  a  man  not  stupefied  by  his  own 
opulence  could  not  possibly  live.  Nevertheless  there 

87 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

are  some  dwellings  planned  upon  a  smaller  scale 
which  may  prove  to  be  permanently  satisfactory;  and 
if  the  good  American  architect,  in  building  such 
dwellings,  will  only  keep  in  mind  the  fundamental 
necessity  of  simplifying  both  the  design  and  the  orna- 
ment, the  proportion  of  the  permanently  satisfactory 
houses  will  increase. 


A  BOUDOIR 


88 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE  TYPICAL  COUNTRY   HOUSE 

IN  the  preceding  chapter  I  declared  that  the  better 
American  work  in  domestic  design  is  being  achieved 
in  houses  which  cost  somewhere  between  twenty-five 
thousand  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars. 
An  illustration,  if  not  a  proof,  of  this  statement  may 
be  found  in  the  pictures  of  the  house  at  Mount  Kisco, 
New  York,  to  which  we  may  now  give  our  attention 
(pages  88,  91,  95).  It  is  distinctly  a  medium-priced 
building,  although  it  tends  towards  the  upper  rather 
than  the  lower  end  of  the  limit.  The  scale  of  the 
place  is  precisely  that  which  should  commend  itself 
to  a  well-to-do  gentleman  in  search  of  a  country  resi- 
dence. It  is  not  so  large  that  its  inhabitants  become 
insignificant  compared  to  their  appurtenances;  yet 
it  is  large  and  handsome  enough  to  give  an  effect  of 
ease,  good  taste,  hospitality,  and  well-favoured  abun- 
dance. The  people  who  occupy  it  at  least  have  a 
chance  of  living  a  country  life  for  its  own  sake;  and 
if  in  the  present  instance  the  surroundings  suggest 
an  interest  in  sport  rather  than  an  interest  in  the 
more  fundamental  rural  amusements,  that  is  merely 
a  matter  of  individual  preference.  The  fact  remains 
that  the  house  starts  on  its  worldly  career  in  a  right- 
minded  condition,  and  does  not  betray  either  an  in- 
congruous pretension  or  a  self-conscious  humility 

89 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

and  reticence.  It  is  what  it  pretends  to  be,  and  it 
pretends  to  be  something  good  and  appropriate. 

The  exterior  is  in  no  particular  style,  yet  it  imme- 
diately arouses  associations  with  a  sound  and  attrac- 
tive. sJ^dje-nljlojoaeslic-^xchitecture^  It  is  a  balanced 
composition,  well  scaled  in  its  subordinate  members, 
frank  and  simple  in  its  detail,  and  both  picturesque 
and  vigorous  in  its  total  effect.  The  design  of  the 
interior  possesses  similar  characteristics.  The  liv- 
ing-room is  not  only  spacious  and  comfortable,  but 
what  is  a  very  different  thing,  it  gives  the  sense  of 
being  spacious  and  comfortable.  It  is  not  filled  with 
irrelevant  and  futile  properties  and  adornments.  It 
is  simply  a  fine  large  room,  panelled  to  the  ceiling, 
in  dark  wood,  and  furnished  in  any  style  you  please. 
It  is  large  enough  to  hold  the  two  Davenport  lounges 
—an  article  of  furniture  which  is  as  modern  as  it  is 
excellent  in  the  right  place — and  some  good  solid, 
comfortable  chairs.  For  the  rest  its  very  bareness  is 
attractive.  There  are  not  many  things,  but  whatever 
is,  is  right — among  which  may  be  mentioned  the 
snug  way  in  which  the  book-shelves  are  fitted  into 
the  walls.  Some  objections  may  be  taken  to  the  scale 
of  the  very  beautiful  mantelpiece,  to  its  relation 
with  the  panelling  behind,  and  to  the  brick  lining  of 
the  chimney,  which  would  have  looked  better  in  a 
greyish  tone;  but  these  are  minor  blemishes.  They 
diminish  by  very  little  the  substantial  value  of  this 
unusual  example  of  a  living-room  in  which  one 
might  like  to  live. 

Neither  is  this  favourable  impression  disturbed 
by  the  glimpses  which  we  obtain  of  the  other  apart- 

90 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

ments.  The  stair-hall  is  as  plain  and  businesslike  as 
a  stair-hall  ought  to  be;  while  the  boudoir  is  charm- 
ing in  spite,  or  rather  because  of,  its  refreshing  sim- 
plicity and  its  perfect  fitness.  The  little  dark  cabinet 
and  desk  are  not  in  keeping;  but  even  they  do  not 
detract  very  much  from  the  integrity  of  this  pleasant 
little  room. 

Inasmuch  as  this  house  is  only  recently  finished,  it 
still  requires  the  confirmation  which  comes  from 
several  years  of  use.  The  grounds  have  not  received 
the  attention  they  will  eventually  get,  and  the  rooms 
are  still  of  course  aggressively  new;  but  the  occu- 
pants of  the  house  are  to  be  congratulated  upon  the 
start  towards  a  most  satisfactory  result. 

Similar  in  type  is  a  house  at  Parkersburg,  West 
Virginia,  in  which  the  architect  has  chosen  a  treat- 
ment with  characteristic  flat,  hipped  roof,  far-pro- 
jecting eaves,  cemented  panelled  walls,  separating 
timber  work,  sharp  projecting  towers  carried  up  in 
bold  dormers;  low  smooth  chimneys  and  generally 
clear-cut  silhouette.  It  is  the  design  of  one  who 
seems  to  delight  in  sharp  contrasts  as  between  differ- 
ently coloured  materials,  and  makes  frequent  use  of 
wood  and  cement  on  the  exteriors.  Deep  and  lumi- 
nous shadows,  too,  seem  to  have  exerted  strong  fasci- 
nation. 

The  often  excessive  projection  of  the  eaves  gives 
a  chiaroscuro  effect,  and  reveals  in  a  diffused 
light  the  mottled  texture  of  the  cement  work  in  con- 
trast with  the  well-shaped  and  finished  timbers  that 
divide  the  wall  space.  The  house  is  well  developed 
aesthetically;  has  something  to  stand  on,  grows 

92 


FIRST-FLOOR  PLAN  FOR  A  COUNTRY  HOUSE 


93 


COUNTRY    HOUSE    BEDROOMS 


94 


STAIRCASE    IN    MR.    J.    BORDEN    HARRIMAN's    HOUSE 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

naturally  from  the  soil,  and  does  not  give  the  ap- 
pearance of  being  dumped  down. 

The  illustration  shown  on  page  98  shows  particu- 
larly well  what  is  meant.  Here  we  have  a  foun- 
dation of  perfectly  plain,  but  well-shaped  brick,  with 
a  smooth  bevelled  cement  water  table  which  is  car- 
ried around  the  retaining  wall  of  the  steps,  broken 
out  in  a  platform  in  front  of  the  door  and  topped 
with  a  brick  parapet  in  rough  cement  treated  simi- 
larly to  the  surface  of  the  walls.  Potted  plants  and 
vines  form  very  useful  accessories  in  the  treatment, 
deftly  softening  the  otherwise  hard  lines  where  the 
masonry  penetrates  the  ground. 

The  house  being  but  one  story  high,  naturally  pre- 
sents, with  its  deep  shadows,  bold  tower  dormers  and 
well-grouped  windows,  a  very  charming  little  home. 
A  nearer  view  of  one  of  the  doors  (page  97),  the 
one  which  is  shown  on  page  98,  reveals  in  the  deep 
shadow  of  the  eaves  several  interesting  features  of 
decoration.  A  simple  but  very  effective  lamp  is 
suspended  from  the  endmost  rafter  by  slender 
chains;  the  glass  of  the  door,  as  well  as  of  the  high 
square  windows  on  either  side,  is  attractively  treated 
in  lead  strips  and  colour;  the  panels  under  each  of 
the  windows  are  framed  with  a  delicate  raised 
moulding,  the  field  being  beaded  and  occupied  by  an 
ingeniously  conventionalised  plant  ornament  in 
delicate  relief.  Even  the  leaders  which  conduct  the 
rain  water  from  the  eaves  back  to  the  wall  and  down 
into  the  ground  hardly  offend  one's  sense  of  pro- 
priety by  cutting,  as  they  do,  through  the  air  and 
across  the  panels  between  door  and  windows.  On 

96 


DETAIL  OF  A  DOORWAY 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


A  SIMPLE  TREATMENT  OF    BRICK  AND   PLASTER 

the  contrary  they  seem  quite  proper  and  intentionally 
a  part  of  the  decorative  scheme.  The  interiors  offer 
less  of  interest,  the  variety  of  fireplace  treatment 
being  the  most  inviting  detail. 

The  illustration  given  on  page  99  is  worthy  of  a 
passing  note.  The  frame  panelling  of  beautiful 
bird's-eye  maple  is  well  managed,  and  shows  wood 
used  in  a  proper  and  very  successful  way;  the  panels 

98 


THE   TYPICAL    COUNTRY    HOUSE 


A   WALL   TREATMENT 


are  happily  composed,  the  rails  and  stiles  forming  an 
effective  border  around  the  chimney  opening,  which 
is  further  softened  by  a  parallel  ring  of  metal  over 
the  arched  top  and  domical  hood,  which  besides  its 
ornamental  function,  is  also  useful  for  preventing 

99 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

smoke  from  easily  blowing  into  the  room,  as  well  as 
for  shielding  the  woodwork  before  mentioned.  Al- 
together it  is  a  very  successful  fireplace  obtained  by 
simple  means,  which,  with  our  gaudy  and  vulgar 
tendencies,  is  something  rare  and  cannot  be  too 
highly  commended.  The  broad  flower  frieze  run- 
ning around  the  room  is  an  ingenious  device  for 
cutting  down  the  height  of  the  ceiling,  and  gives 
scale  to  the  room.  The  other  interiors  show  similar 
treatment  of  the  walls  with  simple  frieze  decoration. 
In  the  dining-room  we  have  a  highly  decorative  glass 
and  metal  lamp,  but  much  richer  than  the  one  that  we 
noted  over  the  entrance.  It  starts  rather  abruptly 
from  the  perfectly  plain  ceiling  and  is,  perhaps,  a 
little  vigorous  in  design  for  its  purpose. 

In  another  house  by  the  same  architect,  we  im- 
mediately recognise  many  similar  characteristics. 
The  front  of  the  house  stands  on  a  very  low  cement 
base,  so  low  that  one  is  compelled  to  look  at  the 
nearer  views  to  make  it  out.  It  is  nevertheless  there, 
and  serves  its  purpose  well.  Compared  with  the 
Parkersburg  house,  this  is  a  really  large  establish- 
ment, but  lacks  somehow  the  picturesque  charm  of 
the  smaller  one.  This  shortcoming  is,  however, 
amply  compensated  for  by  an  air  of  repose  and 
dignity,  due  largely,  no  doubt,  to  its  sharp,  clean-cut 
masses.  Except  on  the  back  where  several  small  in- 
consequential dormers  modestly  proclaim  the  exist- 
ence of  attic  rooms,  the  roof  is  broken  by  chimneys 
only,  and  in  an  unemphatic  way.  The  two  towers, 
which  are  coupled  together  over  the  entrance  in  a 
balcony,  though  appropriate  and  attractive  enough 

100 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

themselves,  do  not  combine  happily.  They  give  the 
effect  of  two  columns  whose  bases  are  not  on  the 
same  level.  The  architect  has  evidently  tried  hard 
to  make  them  as  different  in  shape  and  treatment  as 
possible;  in  the  octagonal  one  the  vertical  lines  have 
accordingly  been  emphasised  and  continued  to  the 
base,  while  in  the  rectangular  one  the  vertical  lines 
are  abruptly  terminated  at  the  second  floor  in  the 
form  of  a  heavy  horizontal  timber  and  a  floor,  which 
throws  the  first  story  of  this  mass  into  the  entrance 
porch.  A  large  screened  veranda  is  a  useful,  as 
well  as  an  effective,  architectural  appendage  to  the 
house. 

Another  view  shows  a  simple,  but  very  admirable 
wooden  stair,  in  which  the  characteristics  of  the 
material  are  satisfactorily  brought  out.  It  runs  up 
in  the  octagonal  tower  of  which  we  have  just  spoken ; 
this  accounts  for  the  curving  inside  string  which 
conforms  in  its  rise  to  the  general  shape  of  the  mass 
in  which  it  mounts.  If  we  go  back  to  our  peculiar 
tall  tower,  by  the  way,  and  regard  it  as  a  staircase 
enclosure,  it  explains  itself  more  to  our  satisfaction, 
even  if  we  do  not  altogether  approve  of  the  treat- 
ment that  has  been  accorded  it  in  the  massing  of  the 
composition. 


102 


A  SIMPLE  STAIRCASE 


CHAPTER   V 

THE  HOUSE  FOR  ALL  THE  YEAR 

OF  all  the  types  of  private  dwellings  now  being 
erected  in  this  country  none  presents  more  features 
of  interest  and  promise  than  the  semi-suburban  resi- 
dence of  Western  and  Middle  Western  cities.  The 
suburban  house  in  the  East  is  rarely  so  interesting 
and  typical.  Of  course  there  have  been  many  expen- 
sive and  carefully  designed  dwellings  of  this  class 
erected  in  and  near  New  York  and  Boston;  but  the 
immense  majority  of  suburban  and  semi-suburban 
houses  along  the  Atlantic  coast  line  are  cheap 
houses,  designed  by  local  builders,  while  the  more 
well-to-do  generally  live  in  houses  that  lose  their 
individuality  in  the  block.  On  the  other  hand,  in 
cities  like  Buffalo,  Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  Detroit, 
Milwaukee,  and  even  Chicago,  the  comparatively 
excellent  means  of  communication  and  cheapness  of 
accessible  land  have  encouraged  a  much  larger  pro- 
portion of  families  to  live  in  detached  houses,  and 
the  popularity  of  motor-cars  has  rendered  houses  of 
this  kind  still  more  practicable  and  accessible. 

They  have  certain  definite  characteristics.  They 
are  built  by  the  owner  from  designs  prepared  by  the 
best  architec'ts  in  the  vicinity.  The  amount  of  land 
by  which  they  are  surrounded  varies  from  a  hundred 
feet  to  several  acres.  As  they  cost  on  the  average 

105 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

somewhere  between  twenty-five  thousand  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  they  represent  precisely  the  ideas, 
the  tastes  and  the  standards  of  the  prosperous  Ameri- 
can business  man.  Such  a  man  cannot  afford  and 
generally  does  not  want  the  exotic  splendours  of  the 
Eastern  millionaire,  but  he  does  want  a  comfortable 
house,  the  looks  of  which  are,  as  they  should  be, 
subordinated  to  convenience,  but  which,  neverthe- 
less, is  supposed  to  have  some  aesthetic  merit;  and 
this  comfortable  atmosphere  is  largely  derived  from 
the  modest  and  unambitious  scale  of  the  whole  per- 
formance. In  the  big  house  of  the  East  comfort  and 
propriety  are  sacrificed  to  the  "stunning"  effect. 
In  the  better  Western  house  of  the  prosperous  busi- 
ness and  professional  man  the  intention  of  the  owner 
is  to  build  a  dwelling  in  which  he  and  his  family 
shall  be  both  in  the  picture  and  thoroughly  at  home. 
The  aesthetic  quality  of  these  houses  may  perhaps 
best  be  described  as  containing  the  usual  American 
mixture  of  excellence  in  intention  coupled  with 
miscellaneousness  of  effect.  These  houses  are  emi- 
nently comfortable,  "  homely,"  and  "  bourgeois." 
One  can  trace  their  descent  unmistakably  from  the 
mid-century  residences  of  the  Eastern  part  of  the 
country,  which  embodied  the  taste  of  the  average 
well-to-do  American  of  that  time,  rather  than  the 
taste  of  specially  trained  and  instructed  people.  But 
there  is  one  important  difference  between  the  two 
types  of  dwellings.  The  mid-century  dwelling  was 
rarely  the  work  of  a  well-qualified  architect.  The 
contemporary  dwelling  of  the  Middle  West  is  the 
work,  so  far  as  design  and  plan  are  concerned,  of 

106 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


RESIDENCE  OF  SAMUEL   CABOT,    ESQ.,    NEAR   BOSTON 

the  qualified  architect,  but  an  architect  who  is  rarely 
in  a  position  to  do  a  completely  finished  job.  He  de- 
signs, of  course,  the  exterior  and  proportions  of  the 
openings,  the  disposition  and  the  detail  of  the  vari- 
ous rooms;  but  beyond  that  the  decorations  and  the 
furnishings  of  the  dwellings  are  the  work  either  of 
the  head  of  the  house  or  of  some  decorating  com- 
pany. As  in  the  latter  case  the  decorating  company 
adorns  and  equips  the  rooms  to  suit  the  taste  of  the 
client,  the  total  effect  is  one  which  represents  the 
average  taste  of  well-to-do  people  rather  than 
the  higher  taste  of  those  specially  trained. 

108 


THE    HOUSE    FOR   ALL   THE   YEAR 


DOORWAY  AND   APPROACH 


The  total  effect  consequently  is  apt  to  lack  the 
architectural  quality,  the  quality  of  careful  compo- 
sition, of  the  subordination  of  detail  to  a  single 
dominant  idea,  and  of  careful  search  for  stuffs  and 
furnishings.  The  impression  'is  too  apt  to  be  one  of 
upholstery — of  apartments  overcrowded  with  big 
stuffed  chairs,  heavy,  spacious  tables,  curtains  and 
coverings  that  jump  out  in  large  flowery  patterns, 
and  many  other  comfortable  and  commonplace 
things;  and  such  is  the  effect,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  intention  evidently  is  to  do  something  good. 

109 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

Indeed,  the  rooms,  in  spite  of  their  homely  appear- 
ance, have  also  the  air  not  only  of  trying  to  be 
artistic,  but  of  seeking  to  conform  in  their  artistry  to 
the  latest  aesthetic  ideas.  The  result  of  these  con- 
flicting tendencies  is  colonial  rooms  without  a  trace 
of  the  Colonial  reti-cence  and  distinction,  with  Colo- 
nial furniture  that  is  machine-made,  too  clumsy  or 
too  cheap  and  fragile.  In  spite  of  the  considerable 
sums  of  money  spent  on  some  of  these  houses,  the 
effect  is  generally  that  of  a  very  commercial  decora- 
tive art — commercial  not  in  the  excellent  economic 
sense  of  obtaining  a  good  result  at  small  cost,  but  in 
the  unfortunate  sense  of  obtaining  a  poor  result  at 
comparatively  high  cost. 

The  employment  of  professional  decorators  is 
partly  responsible  for  this  result.  It  is  very  rarely 
that  effective  interiors  can  be  obtained  by  making 
different  designers  responsible  for  the  architecture 
and  the  decoration  of  a  room.  One  man  or  one  firm 
should  do  all  the  necessary  designing,  and  the  func- 
tion of  the  professional  decorator  should  be  to  carry 
out  the  architect's  ideas.  Within  these  limits  the 
decorators  can  perform  an  important  and  indeed  an 
indispensable  work,  because  by  their  control  of  capi- 
tal!; they  can  collect  large  amounts  of  good  deco- 
rative material  -which  the  architect  can  use.  But 
American  interiors  will  never  be  what  they  should 
be  until  it  becomes  customary  for  the  architect  to  see 
the  design  through  to  the  end;  not  only  because  there 
is  no  other  way  of  obtaining  unity  and  integrity  of 
effect,  but  because  the  architect,  whatever  his  limi- 
tations, alone  represents  a  good  aesthetic  tradition, 

no 


THE    HOUSE    FOR   ALL   THE   YEAR 

The  American  business  man  and  his  wife  have,  of 
course,  no  aesthetic  traditions  at  all,  and  no  inform- 
ing attitude  towards  such  matters,  except  the  wish 
for  cheerful  and  comfortable  surroundings.  The 
professional  decorator  may  have  in  his  employ  de- 
signers as  competent  as  the  average  architect,  but  he 
has  the  fatal  defect,  for  the  purpose  of  good  aesthetic 
results,  of  lacking  the  professional  tradition  of  dis- 
interestedness. He  is  in  the  business  to  make  money, 
and  in  order  to  make  the  money  he  cannot  run  ahead 
of  his  clients'  tastes.  Neither  can  he  sacrifice,  as  a 
designer  must  occasionally  do,  the  profit  on  a  job 
to  the  necessity  of  repairing  a  mistake  or  reaching  a 
better  result.  He  may  know  better,  but  he  cannot 
afford  to  risk  his  business  and  time  taking  care  of  his 
clients'  aesthetic  education.  He  works  entirely  by 
routine,  and  he  accomplishes  the  sort  of  thing  we 
see. 

Nevertheless,  whatever  the  defects  of  this  kind  of 
dwelling,  the  prospect  for  a  gradual  improvement 
of  design  is  full  of  promise.  The  architect  is  con- 
stantly growing  in  authority,  and  in  time  he  will  be 
able  to  control  the  planning  of  dwellings  from  the 
foundations  to  the  finish.  Wherever  he  succeeds  in 
accomplishing  this  the  result  should  be  good  both 
for  him  and  for  his  clients.  His  clients  have  every 
right  to  insist  that  their  houses  shall  be  not  merely 
conveniently  planned,  but  shall  also  be  pleasant  to 
inhabit.  We  have  no  sympathy  with  the  aesthetic- 
ally austere  and  ungracious  rooms  which  some  archi- 
tects seek  to  force  on  their  clients.  The  demand  for 
a  cheerful,  comfortable  and  homely  atmosphere  in 

in 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


HOUSE  WITH    UNENCLOSED   GROUNDS 

a  dwelling  is  absolutely  legitimate,  just  as  the  de- 
mand that  the  interior  should  be  thoroughly  de- 
signed is  legitimate ;  and  it  is  the  action  and  reaction 
between  these  two  demands  which  will  most  effec- 
tually serve  to  give  American  interiors  the  mixture 
of  propriety  and  distinction  which  they  need.  At 
present  distinction  is  too  often  obtained  at  the  ex- 
pense of  propriety  and  comfort,  and  propriety  and 
comfort  too  often  obtained  at  the  expense  of  dis- 
tinction. In  order  to  combine  distinction  with  pro- 
priety the  architects  will  have  to  educate  their  clients 
to  add  to  their  houses  a  pervasive  individual  and 
familiar  atmosphere  without  interfering  with  the 
integrity  of  the  design ;  and  he  will  also  have  to  live 


112 


THE    HOUSE    FOR   ALL    THE    YEAR 


HOUSE  WITH  GROUNDS  ENCLOSED 

up  to  the  highest  standard  of  professional  and  tech- 
nical rectitude.  His  great  advantage  consists  or 
should  consist  in  the  fact  that  he  wishes  to  control 
the  whole  design  in  the  interests  of  his  client.  If  he 
swerves  from  this  high  technical  and  professional 
ideal,  he  will  not  obtain  his  full  rights. 

In  the  East  well-to-do  families  generally  have 
both  a  city  house  and  a  country  place,  which  archi- 
tecturally are  sharply  distinguished  from  each  other; 
but  in  the  West  this  is  much  less  frequently  the  case. 
There  are,  of  course,  many  fine  country  houses  in 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

the  West,  such  as  those  grouped  around  the  shores 
of  Lake  Geneva,  in  Wisconsin;  and  particularly  in 
Chicago  many  of  the  older  families  occupy  houses, 
which,  although  detached  from  their  neighbours, 
are  substantially  urban  rather  than  suburban  dwell- 
ings. Nevertheless,  on  the  whole,  the  well-to-do 
Western  business  man,  in  building  a  new  resi- 
dence, will  probably  choose  a  site  for  all  the  year, 
containing  two  or  three  acres  abutting  on  a 
street  and  surrounded  by  the  grounds  of  similar 
dwellings. 

Such  a  house  is  planned  as  a  permanent  residence. 
It  is  situated  in  a  neighbourhood  accessible  from  the 
man's  place  of  business,  and  is  occupied  both  sum- 
mer and  winter.  It  has  enough  land  around  it  to 
permit  the  enjoyment  of  some  of  the  pleasures  of  the 
country,  and  to  afford  an  opportunity  for  a  certain 
amount  of  landscape  treatment;  but  not  so  much  as 
to  be  any  more  than  the  front  and  back  yard  of  the 
house.  As  an  architectural  type  it  is  intermediate 
between  the  town  and  country  house. 

We  give  in  this  chapter  a  typical  example  of  this 
class  of  dwelling,  and  it  is  also  an  excellent  example 
thereof.  It  exhibits  some  of  the  best  tendencies  to 
be  found  in  the  design  of  such  buildings.  It  is  a 
fine,  large  house,  surrounded  by  abundant  land,  and 
treated  in  a  manner  appropriate  to  its  location  on  a 
street.  The  house  itself  has  been  situated  as  near  the 
street  as  its  height  would  permit,  and  consequently 
much  the  larger  part  of  the  grounds  are  available 
for  a  garden  and  tennis  court  situated  in  the  rear. 
This  arrangement  gives  the  inhabitants  a  pleasant 

114 


THE    HOUSE    FOR   ALL   THE    YEAR 

playground,  partly  screened  from  the  street,  and 
spacious  enough  for  all  kinds  of  country  sports  and 
pleasures. 

The  fact  that  this  outdoor  play-room  is  only  partly 
screened  from  the  street  suggests  one  of  the  most 
interesting  and  important  questions  connected  with 
the  design  of  houses  of  this  class — the  question,  that 
is,  whether  the  grounds  should  or  should  not  be  en- 
closed by  a  wall.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  most  interesting  and  com- 
plete architectural  treatment  of  these  places,  there 
should  be  an  enclosure.  That  is  the  one  way  in 
which  the  house  and  its  grounds  can  be  architec- 
turally united,  in  which  irrelevant  and  incongruous 
surroundings  can  be  shut  off  from  the  garden.  With- 
out the  enclosing  wall  the  occupants  of  the  house 
can  never  come  into  complete  possession  of  their 
grounds;  and  the  architect  can  never  tell  how  soon 
his  most  carefully-designed  landscape  scheme  will 
be  spoiled  by  the  architectural  performances  of  some 
neighbour.  The  preservation  of  the  aesthetic  indi- 
viduality of  such  a  suburban  place  demands  the  en- 
closure of  the  grounds. 

In  a  great  many  cases  these  enclosing  walls  have 
been  constructed,  but  in  more  instances  they  are 
omitted.  They  run  counter  to  the  popular  Ameri- 
can preference  for  a  semi-public  private  life.  To 
shut  your  neighbours  off  absolutely  from  the  yard  of 
your  house  strikes  the  ordinary  American  as  ex- 
clusive and  "stuck-up";  and  it  is  not  an  easy  matter 
to  wean  him  from  this  conception.  Of  course,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  there  is  no  more  reason  why  an  out- 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

door  playground  should  not  be  kept  as  private  as 
an  indoor  living-room;  but  so  far  the  practice  of 
walling  in  the  grounds  around  a  house  has  the  force 
of  custom  against  it.  Whatever  the  motive  in  the 
present  instance,  the  architect  has  managed  to  secure 
a  fair  amount  of  privacy  without  the  use  of  an  en- 
closure. Not  only  are  the  garden  and  tennis  court 
screened  by  the  house,  but  the  shrubbery  at  either 
end  of  the  building  will,  when  it  has  obtained  its  full 
growth,  still  further  protect  the  "backyard"  from 
a  passer-by  on  the  street.  The  treatment  of  the 
garden  back  of  the  house  is  adapted  to  the  absence 
of  any  enclosure.  In  fact,  it  can  hardly  be  said  that 
there  is  any  garden  at  all.  In  the  middle  of  the 
large  "stretch  of  lawn,  and  on  an  axis  with  the  en- 
closed porch,  a  rectangular  space  has  been  sunk; 
and  in  the  centre  of  this  space  is  a  pool  with  a  flower- 
bed at  either  end. 

The  house  is  plain  and  even  severe  in  treatment, 
and  it  has  dignity  without  the  slightest  pretension. 
It  is  simply  an  interesting  and  very  careful  piece  of 
brick-work,  without  any  of  the  stone  trimmings 
with  which  so  many  Eastern  architects  like  to  spot 
and  line  the  surface  of  their  brick  walls.  A  single 
course  of  stone  marks  the  line  of  the  ground  floor, 
and  the  window  sills  are  similarly  distinguished. 
The  windows  are  small  and  not  capped  by  any  orna- 
mental members  whatsoever.  The  only  important 
ornamental  feature  of  the  building  is  a  strong  string- 
course of  terra  cotta,  cutting  off  the  top  floor;  and 
this  is  well,  because  the  top  floor  evidently  contains 
a  large  number  of  small  rooms,  and  is  consequently 

116 


THE    HOUSE    FOR   ALL   THE   YEAR 


A   WESTERN   ENTRANCE 


distinguished  from  the  other  floors  by  the  numerous 
windows  which  its  plan  demands.  The  entrance 
porch  is  treated  with  the  same  simplicity  and  the 
same  respect  for  the  dominant  material.  Its  ap- 
pearance is  not  complicated  and  falsified  by  any 
scheme  of  applied  decoration;  and  the  two  columns 
which  hold  the  lintel  have"  a  structural  function. 
Its  whole  effect  would  perhaps  be  a  little  austere  for 
the  majority  of  Eastern  house-owners;  but  it  is  a 

117 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

salutary  thing  that  the  Western  architect  can  some- 
times dispense  with  the  decorative  irrelevancies  so 
often  demanded  in  the  East. 

The  architecture  of  the  interior  is  characterised 
by  the  same  plain -consistent  treatment.  There  are 
no  imported  mantelpieces,  no  white  paint,  none  of 
the  carpenter's  version  of  classic  and  Renaissance 
detail,  no  Gothic  ceilings,  and  no  "period"  furnish- 
ing. The  finish  is  simple  and  substantial  through- 
out. All  the  rooms  are  more  or  less  completely 
panelled,  and  when  the  panelling  does  not  cover  the 
walls,  the  intervening  spaces  are  treated  generally 
with  a  solid  colour.  The  lines  of  the  beams  and  of 
the  cornice  are  very  strong,  and  the  different  parts 
are  tied  well  together.  The  wood-work  is  stained 
a  dark  brown ;  none  of  the  ordinary  classic  mould- 
ings are  used;  and  no  doors  are  hung  between  the 
principal  rooms.  One  apartment  opens  into  another 
without  the  interruption  even  of  "  portieres,"  and 
the  reader  will  notice  that  no  curtains  keep  out  the 
light  from  the  windows,  which  serves  to  explain  the 
smallness  of  these  openings.  A  pleasant  sense  of 
being  spacious,  conveniently  planned,  and  well  con- 
nected pervades  these  apartments.  They  are  a 
worthy  example  of  an  architect's  interior;  and  if  the 
effect  of  the  inside  is  like  the  effect  of  the  outside,  a 
little  austere,  it  is,  on  the  other  hand,  not  in  the  least 
negative,  or  flat,  or  attenuated. 

Similar  in  intention  of  design  are  three  houses 
which  are  good  examples  of  Western  work  of  the 
better  sort,  combining  a  certain  freedom  of  treat- 
ment not  so  often  found  in  the  East,  with  a  dispo- 

118 


Kt  ,-f  v 


•OS 


AN   EXAMPLE   OF  SIMPLE   BRICK  WORK 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

sition  to  remain  faithful  to  desirable  traditions  of 
residence  design. 

The  problems  presented  by  the  several  houses  are 
very  different;  but  the  several  treatments  of  these 
problems  possess  much  the  same  qualities.  In  each 
instance  the  forms  used  are  simple  and  straight- 
forward and  well  adapted  to  the  peculiarities  of  the 
site. 

The  house  in  Minerva  Avenue,  Chicago,  is  a 
modest  two-story  and  attic  building,  situated  im- 
mediately on  the  street,  and  especially  designed  for 
this  location.  The  architect  has  taken  advantage  of 
every  opportunity  for  variety  of  effect  and  for 
saliency  of  treatment.  The  entrance  porch  instead 
of  being  merely  applied  to  the  building  is  really  at- 
tached to  it  by  its  enclosure  within  a  wall  running 
parallel  to  the  building.  This  wall  is  broken  by 
spots  marking  the  entrance,  and  is  capped  by  a 
course  of  white  stone.  The  overhang  of  the  roof 
with  its  strong  shadow  helps  the  wall  of  the  porch 
to  line  the  house  up  with  the  street,  while  at  the 
same  time  it  assists  the  white  window  and  door 
frames  to  provide  agreeable  contrasts  on  the  front 
of  the  little  building.  The  effect  of  the  roof  is  a 
little  like  that  of  a  man  who  pulls  a  broad-brimmed 
hat  down  over  his  eyes ;  but  such  men  usually  make 
an  interesting  appearance. 

The  interior  of  this  house  is  very  attractive  in  its 
excellent  use  of  comparatively  small  spaces,  and  in 
its  simple  and  consistent  treatment.  The  living  and 
dining-rooms  are  practically  one  apartment,  sepa- 
rated by  bookcases  that  stand  out  into  the  room  as 

1 20 


THE    HOUSE    FOR   ALL   THE    YEAR 


AN    ALL-THE-YEAR-ROUND    HOUSE 

screens,  but  united  by  similarity  in  the  lines  and  the 
effect  of  the  wood-work,  the  character  of  which 
harmonises  with  the  "  Mission "  furniture.  It  is 
very  rare  to  find  a  house  as  small  as  this  so  com- 
pletely designed  and  finished.  Even  the  tables  and 
chairs  in  the  "Mission"  style  are  well  selected  both 
for  comfort  and  avoidance  of  the  ordinary  uncouth 
solidity  of  this  kind  of  thing. 

The  house  at  Milwaukee  is  much  larger,  and  is 
detached  from  its  neighbours.  The  size  of  the  lot 
is,  however,  not  large  enough  to  permit  much  of  any 
landscape  treatment,  and  the  design,  adapted  to  the 


121 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


A  SIGHTLY  REAR 


suburban  character  of  the  surroundings,  is  marked 
by  simplicity  and  refinement.  It  is  a  plain,  honest 
piece  of  brick-work,  varied,  like  the  Chicago  house, 
by  white  wood-work  and  crowned  by  a  roof  with  an 
overhang  that  makes  a  strong  shadow.  The  upper 
story  is  cut  off  from  the  two  lower  stories  and  joined 
to  the  crowning  member  by  a  string  course  of  white 
stone,  and  by  being  made  of  plaster  instead  of  brick. 
The  arrangement  is  attractive;  but  its  attractiveness 
is  diminished  by  the  way  in  which  the  upper  line  of 
bay  window  cuts-off  the  windows  of  the  third  story. 


122 


THE    HOUSE    FOR   ALL   THE   YEAR 

It  would  have  been  better  to  keep  the  front  flat,  and 
also,  if  possible,  to  have  given  the  plaster  some 
modest  surface  decoration.  Altogether,  however, 
this  is  a  very  legitimate  piece  of  work,  and  one 
which  has  a  chance  of  becoming  charming  when  the 
bleakness  of  the  surroundings  is  properly  relieved. 

It  is,  however,  a  residence  at  Canton,  111.,  that  is 
the  most  conspicuous  success.  In  this  instance  the 
site  is  large  enough  to  afford  a  chance  -for  landscape 
treatment,  while  at  the  same  time  it  is  so  near  its 
neighbours  that  it  cannot  be  considered  as  an  iso- 
lated country  place.  The  architect  has  managed  ad- 
mirably to  adapt  the  design  of  the  house,  and  the  lay- 
out of  the  ground  to  a  situation  which  is  countrified 
without  being  entirely  in  the  country.  The  long  line 
of  the  house  is  parallel  to  the  public  road,  from 
which  the  grounds  are  separated  by  a  brick  wall, 
low  enough  to  give  definiteness  of  enclosure,  but  not 
high  enough  to  seem  exclusive.  The  house  is  ap- 
proached by  a  straight  driveway,  which  turns  in  to 
the  back  of  the  house,  but  which  is  reached  from  the 
front  of  the  house  by  a  brick  walk  running  the  whole 
length  of  the  fagade.  The  building  is  situated  on  a 
slightly  higher  level  than  this  brick  walk — a  level 
which  is  emphasised  by  a  stone  terrace,  from  which 
the  rooms  of  the  house  are  entered  by  a  couple  of 
stone  steps.  The  entrance  proper  is  at  some  distance 
from  the  road,  and  is  marked  by  the  projection  of  a 
large  gabled  room  over  the  brick  and  stone  terrace, 
carried  by  plain  brick  piers.  The  design  may  be 
classified  as  a  free  example  of  half-timbered  work, 
which  is  sufficiently  picturesque  and  irregular  to 

123 


HOUSE  OF   MR.   ORENDORFF,    CANTON,   ILL. 


THE    HOUSE    FOR   ALL    THE    YEAR 

look  well  in  the  background  of  the  neighbouring 
foliage,  but  which  at  the  same  time  is  a  well-bal- 
anced composition.  The  effect  of  the  place  is  wholly 
charming. 

The  immediate  surroundings  of  the  house  have 
been  formally  treated;  but  the  formality  has  never 
for  a  moment  degenerated  into  emptiness  and 
rigidity.  The  house  is  at  home  on  its  site;  the  land 
round  about  has  been  kept  genuinely  natural  in  ap- 
pearance. There  are  very  few  all-the-year-round 
houses  in  this  country  in  which  such  a  balance  of 
desirable  qualities  has  been  preserved. 

The  interiors  are,  perhaps,  less  successful  than  the 
exterior.  They  show  a  preference  for  a  simple,  con- 
sistent scheme,  which  in  the  case  of  the  living-room 
has  the  appearance  of  being  original  as  well  as  at- 
tractive; but  the  value  of  this  scheme  has  not  been 
preserved  in  the  somewhat  incongruous  furniture 
and  hangings.  The  dining-room  is  more  consistently 
realised ;  and  the  other  apartments  look  as  if  the 
architect  had  been  a  little  fancy-free  in  this  house, 
which  is,  of  course,  a  good  thing  to  be. 


125 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  HALL  AND  THE  STAIRS 

THE  growth  and  development  of  the  "  hall "  in  the 
American  house  is  rather  a  curious  thing,  for 
whereas,  in  the  house  built  vprevious  to  1860,  the 
hall  was  in  nearly  every  case  an  entry  exclusively, 
it  has  since  become  in  many  cases  a  recognised  sit- 
ting room.  The  entry  of  the  old-fashioned  house 
was  wider  or  narrower  as  the  dignity  of  the  house 
might  seem  to  make  necessary,  and  where  wide  it 
might  contain  a  sofa,  and  on  very  hot  days  of  the 
North  American  summer  furnish  a  place  to  sit  in  and 
enjoy  the  breeze.  Yet  it  still  contained  the  "  hat- 
rack  "  and  the  "  umbrella-stand  " ;  it  still  had,  to  light 
it,  only  the  open  door  and  the  narrow  "  side-lights," 
and  it  was  still  furnished  or  left  unfurnished  as  a 
passageway  alone.  The  floor  would  be  covered 
with  oilcloth,  the  walls  would  affect  a  surface  of 
uniform  tint  or  perhaps  imitate  in  the  papering 
blocks  of  stone  or  marble.  The  stairs  went  up  at  one 
side  against  the  wall  with  no  pretence  at  shutting  off 
or  concealment. 

Since  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  there  has  been  a 
disposition  in  country  houses  to  make  the  hall  square 
and  spacious,  even  if  by  so  doing  the  other  rooms  of 
the  house  on  either  story  are  somewhat  crowded  or 
are  diminished  in  number.  It  seems  to  be  assumed 

126 


MAIN  FLOOR  FOR  A  COUNTRY  HOUSE 


127 


COUNTRY   HOUSE   BEDROOMS 


128 


THE    HALL    AND    THE    STAIRS 

that  the  hall  is  a  sitting-room  so  desirable  in  itself 
that  something  should  give  way  to  this  disposition. 
Even  in  cities  and  in  the  deep  and  narrow  houses 
used  there,  with  their  windows  only  in  the  narrow 
walls  of  the  front  and  rear,  this  same  arrangement 
of  a  square  hall  has  been  popular,  and  although  in 
that  connection  many  householders  object  to  it  al- 
together, many  again  are  found  who  use  it  and  even 
advocate  its  introduction. 

When,  however,  the  hall  is  to  be  treated  as  a  sit- 
ting-room, it  becomes  altogether  desirable  to  shut 
the  staircase  off  and  separate  staircase  from  hall  by 
a  screen  or  by  something  more  than  a  screen,  namely, 
by  a  solid  wall  with  an  opening  more  or  less  wide. 
The  door  itself  may  not  be  hung  in  this  opening- 
it  may  be  better  dressed  by  hanging  curtains,  or 
portieres;  but  at  all  events  the  two  apartments  are 
better  when  entirely  distinct. 

The  term  staircase,  I  may  mention  in  passing,  is 
used  in  the  sense  given  in  the  Dictionary  of  Archi- 
tecture and  Building  as  meaning  "the  structure 
containing  a  stair,"  the  "stair  together  with  its  en- 
closing wall."  In  this  sense  it  is  here  maintained 
that  staircase  and  hall  should  be  separated  as  far  as 
the  size  of  the  house  and  the  disposition  of  the  plan 
will  admit. 

Thus  in  the  illustration  shown  on  page  151  there  is 
indeed  no  way  visible  of  closing  the  opening  between 
the  two  apartments,  but  otherwise  the  plan  is  an 
ideally  good  one.  The  hall  has  windows,  it  accom- 
modates bookshelves,  a  great  fixed  sofa,  tables  and 
chairs;  and  it  forms  an  altogether  agreeable  sitting- 

129 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


A   HALL  AND  LIVING-ROOM 


room  from  which  by  two  steps  we  mount  to  a  second 
smaller  sitting-room,  a  kind  of  recess  with  a  stand 
and  a  chair  and  a  picture  which  receives  sufficient 
daylight,  and  from  which  you  go  up  to  the  first 
landing  of  the  stair,  upon  which  again  is  a  fixed  seat 
and  into  which  opens  a  window  in  the  rear  wall. 
There  cannot  be  a  pleasanter  form  of  division  than 
this. 

Again,  on  page  131,  there  is  shown  a  hall  with 
heavy  oak  table  and  bookshelves;  there  are  steps 
which  take  you  up  to  a  dining-room  with  a  recessed 
window,  and  by  another  entrance  you  reach  the  foot 

130 


THE    HALL   AND   THE    STAIRS 


A  RAISED  DINING-ROOM 


of  the  main  stair,  which  in  this  picture  is  only  just 
indicated. 

If,  now,  we  consider  the  stairs  themselves,  with 
the  hall  as  being  primarily  the  place  for  the  stairs 
only  —  that  is  to  say  the  staircase  —  one  arrangement 
is  to  have  the  staircase-hall  leading  directly  into 
the  library,  but  in  itself  allowing  of  access  to  the 
stair  and  nothing  else  except  a  door  in  the  wain- 
scoting. 

An  always  attractive  arrangement  for  the  hall  is  in 
a  strictly  Old  Colonial  fashion  with  verdures  for  the 
wall  hangings,  a  high  and  deep  Empire  sofa,  with 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

a  mirror  hanging  above  it  whose  frame  with  the 
hooks  smacks  of  the  same  early  epoch;  and  the  stair 
itself  with  its  long  and  wide  landing  is  an  excellent 
piece  of  the  stair  building  of  a  hundred  years  ago. 
In  some  instances  there  is  carried  out  in  the  best 
manner  that  picturesque  and  most  interesting 
scheme,  in  which  the  newel  of  the  stair  is  formed  by 
a  spiral  turn  of  the  hand-rail  supported  by  a  multi- 
plicity of  little  balusters  exactly  like  those  of  the 
ramp  of  the  stair  above.  This  is,  indeed,  a  most 
fascinating  device. 

Page  133  seems  to  be  a  modern  composition  in  the 
same  spirit,  and  it  must  be  owned  that  the  soffit  of 
the  stair  in  its  upper  part  beyond  the  square  "  quar- 
ter pace"  is  more  strictly  true  to  precedent  than  in 
cases  where  a  continuous  sheathing  replaces  the 
moulded  underside  of  each  step.  Another  view  of 
the  same  staircase  shows  a  very  broad  and  imposing 
set  of  glazed  doors  leading  from  the  outer  vestibule 
to  the  stair-foot. 

The  people  of  a  hundred  years  ago,  in  the  great 
wooden  houses  of  Beaufort  and  along  the  James 
River  and  more  rarely  in  the  North,  used  to  affect 
the  double  stairway,  one  with  a  central  stair  leading 
to  the  "half  pace"  and  two  stairs  leading  from  that 
platform  to  the  landing  above.  Good  instances  are 
to  be  found  in  many  modern  houses. 

Other  halls  give,  in  a  pleasant  way,  memoranda 
of  the  simpler  and  smaller  staircases  of  our  fore- 
fathers, showing  those  arrangements  by  which  the 
stair  was  partly  sheltered  from  draughts  and  the 
persons  ascending  and  descending  were  partly  shel- 

132 


-•  "  — • — — ^ 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


A   MODERN   COLONIAL   STAIRCASE 

tered  from  observation.  These  are  always  danger- 
ous to  the  designer,  because  the  raking  lines  of  the 
stair  are  always  difficult  to  manage,  and  produce  un- 
gainly spaces,  shapes  and  combinations.  The  best 
are  the  simplest,  and  ones  closely  built  in  are  to  be 
found  in  many  modern  houses,  hiding  from  the  spec- 
tator all  the  sloping  hand-rails,  wainscots,  base- 
boards and  the  like.  Indeed,  the  more  a  stair 
can  be  built  in  between  walls  generally  the  better 
it  is. 

The  hall  of  the  Kip  house  gives  the  details  of  an 
extremely  magnificent  dwelling,   one  built  on   the 

134 


THE    HALL    AND    THE    STAIRS 


AN   EFFECTIVE   NEWEL   POST 


lines  of  the  Jacobean  houses  of  Great  Britain.  In 
such  a  house  as  this  there  should  be  no  elevators  nor 
other  modern  conveniences  except,  perhaps,  the 
electric  light,  which  may  be  admitted  to  noble  man- 
sions in  England,  chiefly  that  it  may  the  better 
illuminate  the  artistic  treasures  of  the  building  itself 
and  its  contents.  The  Oriental  weapons  on  the 
walls  should  have  a  special  electric  light  whose 
beams  may  be  thrown  full  upon  them  in  order  that 
the  admiring  visitor  may  see  the  details  of  those 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


A   TYPE   OF    HALL   AND    LIVING-ROOM 

curious  arms  without  asking  that  they  be  taken  down 
for  his  examination. 

The  hall  of  the  Clarence  Mackay  house  at  Roslyn, 
Long  Island,  has  a  stair  of  great  splendour,  with 
parapets  filled  with  Roman  scroll-work  carved  in  the 
solid  wood,  pierced  through  and  sculptured  on  either 
side.  Such  a  stair,  for  richness  and  brilliancy  of 
effect,  is  worthy  of  Blicking  or  Hatfield. 

There  are  some  interesting  bits  of  hall  and  passage 
which  are  not  at  all  connected  with  the  stair.  Thus 
the  landing  at  the  head  of  the  stairs  may  be  parti- 
tioned off  to  form  a  lobby — more  enclosed  and  less 

138 


THE    HALL   AND   THE    STAIRS 


A   LIVIXG-ROOM   OPENING  IXTO  THE    HALL 


accessible  than  an  open  hall  would  be — to  the  bed- 
room beyond.  Such  an  enclosed  hall  is  a  most  at- 
tractive and  generally  simple  composition.  A 
large  hall  may  serve  as  outer  sitting-room,  while  a 
smaller  inner  room  is  three  or  four  steps  above  it  in 
front. 

Page  146  is  not  attractive  from  the  number  of 
levels  seen  in  it.  The  large  hall  where  we  stand 
leads  through  a  great  opening  to  \vhat  seems  a  din- 
ing-room on  the  left  and  it  is  not  at  all  separated 
from  the  hall  itself  by  door  or  curtain,  and  on  the 
right  we  go  up  two  steps  and  again  three  steps  more 

141 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

to  other  parts  of  the  house,  these  connecting  in  a 
way  with  the  stair  itself.  This  hall  with  its  sofa,  its 
cottage  piano,  its  comfortable  chairs  and  stands 
bearing  lamps,  is  evidently  a  place  of  habitation,  and 
the  framed  pictures  on  the  walls  show  refined  choice 
in  works  of  art. 


142 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    LIVING-ROOM 

THE  size  and  arrangement  of  the  living-room  will 
of  course  depend  very  largely  on  the  foregoing  con- 
siderations in  the  matters  of  the  hall  and  stair: — - 
indeed,  these  three  features  of  the  plan  of  a  house  of 
moderate  cost  are  so  mutually  dependent  that  either 
one  can  hardly  be  discussed  without  constant  refer- 
ence to  the  disposition  of  the  others.  Much  of  what 
has  been  said  above  on  the  subject  of  halls  will,  there- 
fore, have  more  or  less  weight  in  deciding  on  the 
placing  of  the  living-room. 

When  the  site  is  spacious  enough — as  in  the  coun- 
try— to  allow  of  a  certain  amount  of  freedom  in  the 
orientation  of  the  house  and  its  parts,  the  first  con- 
sideration will  usually  be  given  to  exposure  and  out- 
look; and  this  will  be  of  more  especial  importance 
in  the  placing  of  the  principal  rooms.  Thus,  in 
warm  localities  it  is  desirable  that  the  living-room 
should  face  toward  the  prevailing  summer  winds; 
and,  further,  if  the  house  is  to  be  occupied  through- 
out the  year,  there  should  be  some  windows  with  a 
sunny  exposure.  So  in  the  vicinity  of  New  York, 
it  is  well  to  place  the  principal  apartments  along  the 
southerly  side  of  the  house;  and  the  offices  and  sub- 
ordinate rooms  to  the  north. 

The  question  of  the  library  is  for  our  present  pur- 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 


MAKING   USE   OF   STEPS 


pose  connected  very  closely  with  the  living-room. 
What  we  are  discussing  is  the  dwelling  in  which 
the  library  and  living-room  will  very  often  be  one 
and  the  same.  Even  in  the  case  of  the  hard  worker 
with  pen  or  typewriter,  the  room  where  his  books 
are  kept  is  usually  the  sitting-room,  he  being  free  to 
reserve  a  workroom  opening  from  it,  of  which  he 
can  shut  the  door  and  in  which  he  can  arrange 
his  thoughts  undisturbed  and  construct  the  lecture 
or  the  article  which  goes  to  make  him  the  bread- 
winner. 

146 


THE    LIVING-ROOM 


HALLWAY   WITH    BOOKS 


There  is,  however,  another  side  to  it,  for  in  some 
houses  the  living-room  is  also  the  drawing-room. 
Many  a  family  takes  nearly  this  view  of  the  situation 
—viz.,  that  there  must  be  a  relatively  large,  airy  and 
spacious  room  for  the  family  sitting-room  and  for 
the  more  intimate  guests,  while  a  comparatively 
small  reception  room  is  used  for  the  visitor  who 
calls  in  the  \vay  of  mere  ceremony,  or  in  the  way  of 
business,  or  on  a  single  occasion  without  the  im- 
mediate prospect  of  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
family.  We  shall  see  in  our  illustrations  examples 

149 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 


A    LIVABLE   HALLWAY 


of  both  these  schemes,  but  first  let  us  consider  those 
rooms  which  are  living-rooms  and  nothing  else. 

Thus  in  the  room  on  page  149  the  arrangements 
make  for  comfort  and  convenience;  the  room  on  the 
right  (raised  by  two  steps)  is  evidently  a  plant 
room,  a  conservatory  of  that  sort  which  accommo- 
dates itself  well  to  the  interior  in  which  the  family 
are  to  live;  and  this  is  not  shut  off  by  any  door,  the 
connection  being  by  a  wide  opening,  which  makes 
of  the  conservatory  a  kind  of  bay  window  of  unusual 
size  and  importance.  Then  in  the  room  itself  there  is 


THE    LIVING-ROOM 


HALL  WINDOWS 

another  bay  window  used  as  a  recess  for  the  fixed  sofa, 
with  the  awkward  but  evidently  inevitable  device  of 
a  register  for  the  heat  and  for  the  ventilation  shown 
on  its  upright  side.  On  either  side  of  the  simple 
brick  chimney-piece, — an  admirable  fixture  which 
one  longs  to  see  more  often  in  these  tranquil  do- 
mestic interiors, — there  is  a  window  commanding  a 
view  of  trees  and  open  country,  and  of  these  win- 
dows one  is  short,  with  a  sill  raised  very  high  to 
allow  of  bookshelves  below  it.  The  encroaching 
radiator  is  the  only  blot  on  this  charming  compo- 
sition. If,  as  is  most  probable,  the  beams  of  the 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


A   LIVING-ROOM  WITH    EXTRA   HEIGHT 


ceiling  are  really  the  working  timbers  merely  boxed 
with  boarding  or  finished  off  with  moulding,  we 
can  leave  this  sitting-room  with  the  feeling  thai 
nothing  more  delightful  is  likely  to  come  our 
way. 

Something  of  a  similar  character  is  to  be  found 
in  the  room  shown  above — a  room  in  that  Evanston 
which  is  overshadowed  by  the  renown  of  its  great 
neighbour,  Chicago.  Here  the  one-story  house  is 
so  treated  that  the  low  walls  of  the  sitting-room  are 
helped  out  by  the  slope  of  the  roof;  so  that  the  room, 

152' 


THE    LIVING-RCOM 


AN    EFFECTIVE    DORMER   WINDOW 

not  more  than  seven  feet  in  the  eaves,  rises  to  eleven 
feet  or  more  in  the  middle.  Commonly  this  arrange- 
ment has  the  unfortunate  result  that  the  daylight  is 
not  admitted  from  a  sufficient  height  above  the  floor, 
but  in  this  case  the  putting  in  of  a  capitally  conceived 
dormer  window  on  the  right  remedies  the  possible 
difficulty  and  gives  us  in  part,  at  least,  a  sufficient 
lighting  for  whatever  in  the  room  may  need  to  be 
seen  by  full  daylight. 

Again   on   page    153    are   seen   the    arrangements 
of  the  same  room  from  another  point  of  observation. 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


A   DOMED   CEILING 


This  is  a  noble  sitting-room  indeed,  with  windows 
in  three  walls  and  a  great  brick  chimney-piece. 
Other  illustrations  of  the  same  house  will  be  found 
on  pages  121  and  122,  and  the  architect  is  to  be 
congratulated  on  his  success  in  designing  this 
dwelling. 

Some  rooms  carry  farther  than  usual  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  windows  flanking  the  chimney-piece- 
windows  high  in  the  wall,  with  bookcases  below 
them  and,  in  short,  a  familiar  arrangement  carried 
out  to  its  logical  extreme.    There  is  no  doubt  about 

i54 


THE    LIVING-ROOM 


DRAWING-ROOM    OF   GENERAL   DRAPER,   WASHINGTON,   D.   C. 

the  advantage  of  the  plan  from  the  point  of  view  of 
receiving  daylight  freely  at  the  most  agreeable  side 
of  the  room.  In  many  instances,  however,  there  does 
not  exist  that  other  advantage,  the  looking  out-of- 
doors  as  you  sit  by  the  fire,  for  (probably  from  dif- 
ferent local  causes)  it  is  thought  best  to  fill  these 
windows-frames  with  decorative  glass  of  a  pretty  de- 
sign. It  is  a  good  thought  to  arrange  these  windows 
as  casements  with  hinges  by  which  they  may  swing 
freely  into  the  room. 

This  matter  of  the  sitting-room  extends  itself  inev- 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


ANOTHER  VIEW  OF  GENERAL  DRAPER'S  DRAWING-ROOM 

itably  into  the  larger  library.  But  as  to  the  real 
drawing-rooms,  the  rooms  arranged  en  suite,  we  have 
them  at  their  best  in  long  rooms  opening  into  each 
other. 

One  long  room  with  perhaps  two  chimney- 
pieces,  may  be  hung  with  tapestries  with  figure  sub- 
jects on  a  very  large  scale,  and  furnished  with  sofas, 
chairs  and  fauteuils.  Such  apartments  cannot  be 
considered  sitting-rooms  in  the  ordinary  sense,  and 
yet  in  summer  how  delightful  to  inhabit!  There  is 
no  place  quite  so  cool  as  a  very  big  room  with  a 

156 


THE    LIVING-ROOM 

moderate  current  of  air  entering  at  the  windows  and 
doors.  Such  a  current  of  air  ceases  to  be  a  draught- 
it  does  not  worry  you  with  fears  of  to-morrow,  it 
allows  the  whole  room  to  remain  sweet  and  pure 
with  a  steady  temperature.  Give  us  for  our  summer 
evenings  a  room  not  smaller  than  forty  by  seventy 
feet. 


157 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE    DINING-ROOM 

THE  considerations  of  exposure  and  outlook,  dis- 
cussed in  the  previous  chapter  in  connection  with 
the  living-room,  apply  also  to  the  dining-room. 
Here,  however,  the  question  of  outlook  is  not  of 
equal  importance,  because  the  dining-room  will  not 
be  used  habitually  for  other  purposes  than  the  serv- 
ing of  meals.  When  it  is  to  be  so  used — when  the 
dining-room  is  also  the  family  sitting-room — the  con- 
ditions of  the  two  classes  of  apartment  have  to  be 
considered  simultaneously;  and  the  case  becomes  too 
complex  to  be  provided  for  except  in  connection  with 
the  immediate  site  and  the  house-plan. 

As  for  the  internal  arrangement  of  the  dining- 
room  in  its  more  usual  capacity,  this  is  governed 
mainly  by  the  form  and  disposition  of  the  table- 
especially  of  the  dinner-table,  which  may  sometimes 
differ  in  size  and  arrangement  from  that  used  at 
other  meals.  If  an  extension  table  is  to  be  used,  the 
shape  of  the  room  will  tend  to  be  relatively  long  and 
narrow,  especially  if  it  is  to  accommodate  a  large 
party  at  certain  times.  Thus  a  table  for  twelve  per- 
sons needs  to  be  eleven  or  twelve  feet  long,  and  now- 
adays not  less  than  four  feet  wide.  This  will  require 
a  floor  space  not  less  than  twelve  feet  wide  for  con- 
venient service,  and  about  twenty  feet  in  length  in 

158 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


AN    ELABORATE    DINING-ROOM 


the  clear  between  the  opposite  walls,  so  that  if  the 
chimney-breast  is  at  one  of  the  narrow  ends  of  the 
room  this  measurement  of  twenty  feet  must  be  taken 
between  the  face  of  the  chimney-piece  or  of  the 
mantelpiece  and  of  the  opposite  wall.  Again  if 
the  sideboard  is  to  be  put  in  at  the  end  opposite  the 
fireplace  this  also  must  be  considered;  for  a  space 
of  at  least  nineteen  feet  is  really  needed  for  the 
proper  service  of  the  table  when  extended  to  a 
length  of  twelve  feet.  As  for  the  width  of  the  room, 
with  a  four-foot  table,  eleven  feet  in  the  clear  be- 

162 


THE   DINING-ROOM 


A  COMBINATION  DINING-  AND  LIVING-ROOM 

tween  the  walls,  between  fireplace  and  sideboard, 
between  sideboard  and  service  table,  between  any  and 
all  permanent  obstacles  must  be  maintained.  This, 
of  course,  is  an  awkward  shape  for  the  room,  and 
accordingly  it  is  usual  to  give  to  the  dining-room 
greater  breadth  than  seems  essential,  and  then  to 
occupy  this  greater  breadth  with  (as  above  sug- 
gested) the  mantelpiece  and  the  sideboard,  or  the 
service  table,  or  both;  in  other  words,  the  room 
within  the  walls  may  be  nineteen  feet  by  fourteen,  a 
tolerable  proportion;  and  all  the  large  obstacles, 
more  than  once  named  above,  may  be  put  on  the  long 

163 


HOUSES    FOR  TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


A  CORNER   CHINA  CLOSET 


sides.  It  is  here,  of  course,  that  the  bookcases  and  the 
like  will  be  set  in  rooms  which  have  the  double  pur- 
pose of  sitting-room  and  eating-room. 

The  disposition  of  windows  for  the  proper  light- 
ing of  this  oblong  dining-room  is  perhaps  more  diffi- 
cult than  in  the  case  of  any  other  apartment  of  the 
average  house.  The  desirability  of  so  arranging  the 
windows  that  persons  sitting  at  table  shall  not 
have  their  backs  turned  directly  to  the  light,  and  of 
lighting  the  table  equally  throughout  often  bring 
about  a  problem  difficult  to  solve  with  entire  satis- 
faction. If  conditions  permit  of  placing  the  room  so 

164 


THE    DINING-ROOM 


A   WELL-LIGHTED  DINING-ROOM 


that  there  may  be  a  skylight  or  a  lantern-light  over 
the  table,  or  across  one  end  of  the  ceiling — as  in  the 
case  of  a  bay — a  very  effective  interior  may  be  had, 
and  with  but  few  openings  in  the  side-walls.  Ordi- 
narily, however,  this  feature  of  the  plan  will  be 
found  impracticable  for  houses  of  moderate  cost,  and 
daylight  must  therefore  be  obtained  from  the  side- 
\valls  only.  Then,  obviously,  windows  in  one  of  the 
longer  sides  of  the  room  will  afford  the  most  per- 
fectly distributed  light,  and  these  windows  should 
preferably  be  high  in  the  wall — carried  close  up  to 

165 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


A  WESTERN  DINING-ROOM 


the  ceiling,  as,  for  instance,  to  a  line  twelve  inches 
below  it,  and  with  high  sills;  the  purpose  being  to 
throw  the  light  downward  rather  than  horizontally 
—over  the  heads  and  shoulders  of  the  diners  rather 
than  directly  on  their  backs.  A  very  good  plan  has 
been  made,  in  which  the  dining-room,  of  only  mod- 
erate height,  was  unusually  well  lighted  from  two 
adjoining  sides,  the  windows  in  each  wall  being 
close  to  the  corners.  This  resulted  in  cross  lights 
passing  diagonally  over  the  table  from  the  ends,  and 
the  central  position  of  each  wall  was  available  for 

166 


THE    DINING-ROOM 


A    DINING-ROOM    FIREPLACE 


furniture.  An  equally  good,  and  more  artistically 
effective,  design  will  result  by  lighting  a  long  room 
from  the  two  opposite  ends;  but  the  necessary  condi- 
tion— two  opposite  outer  walls — will  not  often  be 
obtained. 

The  foregoing  considerations,  based  on  the  re- 
quirements of  a  long  table  and  a  correspondingly 
long  room,  will  be  found  much  modified  in  the  case 
of  the  much  broader  table,  in  fashion  about  1875  to 
1890,  and  of  the  round  dining  table,  the  use  of  which 
appears  to  be  increasing  in  popularity,  and  which 

167 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 


AN  OLD-FASHIONED  DINING-ROOM 

demands  less  floor  space  for  convenient  service  than 
a  long  table  of  equal  seating  capacity.  Thus  a  round 
table  five  feet  in  diameter,  or  thereabouts,  will  ac- 
commodate a  party  of  eight  with  comfort,  while  a 
diameter  of  some  six  feet  will  allow  of  ten  or  more 
seats.  Hence  a  floor  space  of  fifteen  feet  across  will 
be  ample  provision  for  the  table  of  an  average  house- 
hold, making  allowance  for  other  dining-room  furni- 
ture outside  of  this  space.  Such  a  table,  then,  can 
be  placed  at  one  end  of  the  room,  fifteen  feet  wide, 
and  could  be  well  lighted  from  that  end  wall,  even 
with  only  one  or  two  windows;  and  the  entire  room 

168 


THE   DINING-ROOM 


r 


I 


A  COLONIAL  DIXIXG-ROOM 


need  not  be  more  than  perhaps  fifteen  by  eighteen 
feet.  If  that  end  of  the  room  can  be  treated  as  a  bay, 
projecting  considerably  beyond  the  fagade,  it  may  be 
made  a  most  attractive  feature  in  the  design  of  the 
dining-room.  For  instance,  let  such  a  bay  have  the 
form  of  a  semi-circle  or  semi-polygon,  with  the  table 
at  its  centre.  Windows  can  then  be  provided  all 
along  the  perimeter  of  the  bay,  leaving  the  wall 
spaces  of  the  inner  portion  of  the  room  for  other 
furniture.  This  is  an  especially  pleasant  feature  in 
a  summer  home,  for  nearly  the  entire  extent  of  the 

169 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


A  MODERN  COLONIAL  DINING-ROOM 


outer  wall  can  be  made  to  open,  so  that  the  bay 
becomes  almost  the  equivalent  of  a  veranda. 

It  will  be  readily  understood  that  the  conditions 
of  the  room  are  nearly  the  same  in  the  case  of 
the  square  and  of  the  round  table.  The  point  is,  in 
either  case,  that  the  dining-room  does  not  tend  to 
be  long  and  narrow  relatively  as  in  the  days  of  tables 
intended  to  be  adjusted  in  length  to  the  requirements 
of  a  large  party.  The  table  of  recent  years,  with  its 
square  or  round  or — less  frequently — polygonal  top, 
is  not  an  extension  table  at  all,  but  is  fitted  to  receive 

170 


THE    DINING-ROOM 


STATELINESS    IX    THE    DIXING-ROOM 

tops  of  different  sizes;  exactly  as  in  a  restaurant  a 
number  of  circular  table-tops  are  kept  in  stock,  and 
according  to  the  size  of  the  dinner  party  the  largest 
(accommodating  twenty  persons  perhaps)  will  be 
put  in  place — or  a  smaller  one  accommodating  four- 
teen, twelve  or  ten.  Thus  in  the  illustration  shown 
on  page  168  the  room,  being  nearly  square  in  plan, 
is  so  large  relatively  to  the  ordinary  size  of  the 
dining-table  that  it  would  accommodate  a  round-top 
or  square-top  table  large  enough  for  sixteen  guests, 
and  this  without  causing  a  derangement  of  the  furni- 

171 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

ture  in  the  room.  Pages  161  and  162  illustrate 
similar  large  dining-rooms. 

On  page  169  is  shown  a  room  in  Zanesville,  Ohio, 
which  is  frankly  designed  in  a  modification  of  the 
Georgian  (Old  Colonial)  style,  and  is  a  really  excel- 
lent composition.  The  decoration  includes  the  very 
obvious  protection  for  the  walls — the  dado  which  in 
this  case  is  carried  up  to  a  height  of  about  seven  feet 
and  corresponds  in  height  to  the  mantelpiece.  The 
shelf  of  the  mantel  is  carried  around  the  room, 
though  elsewhere  it  is  narrower  than  over  the  fire- 
place; and  this  shelf,  wide  or  narrow,  affords  the 
best  possible  place  for  exhibiting  those  bowls,  plat- 
ters, tea-pots,  covered  dishes  and  the  like,  which  are 
among  the  treasures  of  the  true  lover  of  "  old  china." 
Such  a  collector  puts  his  stately  vases  into  his  draw- 
ing-room and  library;  but  the  majority  of  the  collec- 
tor's pieces  are  not  stately  vases;  and,  in  a  way  not 
perfectly  explicable,  the  dining-room  seems  to  be 
the  more  congenial  home  for  the  covered  sugar-pots, 
the  small  tureens,  and  the  huge  Persian  and  Chinese 
bowls  which,  under  the  general  name  of  "  punch 
bowl,"  though  not  now  used  for  punch,  adorn  the 
rooms  of  the  happy  few. 

An  attractive  kind  of  dining-room  is  Old  Colonial, 
in  which  the  panelling  goes  almost  to  the  ceiling, 
leaving  only  a  very  narrow  strip  of  flat  wall  between 
the  surbase  of  the  woodwork  and  the  plastered  "cor- 
nice" above.  It  is  not,  perhaps,  the  most  happy 
disposition;  but  the  very  strong  and  spirited  plaster- 
work  of  a  ceiling  in  a  modified  Jacobean  style  may 
call  for  the  sheathing  of  the  wall  with  woodwork, 

172 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

and  suggest  this  as  the  most  convenient  plan.  It  has 
the  additional  advantage  of  giving  to  the  ceiling  the 
full  size  of  the  room  between  the  walls;  for  if  the 
panelling  had  been  carried  up  to  the  flat  surface  of 
the  ceiling,  the  room  inevitably  would  have  looked 
smaller. 

In  some  modern  houses  one  finds  a  dining-room 
of  the  neo-classic  style,  very  much  such  a  room  as 
was  devised  for  the  wealthy  citizens  of  1825  and  the 
years  following.  To  our  modern  tastes  the  fully  de- 
veloped entablature  and  columns  of  composite  order, 
brought  so  near  to  us  on  the  walls  of  the  room,  may 
be  severally  a  little  aggressive.  This,  however,  seems 
hypercriticism  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  traditions 
of  our  most  elegant  American  life  of  the  time  when 
men  now  old  were  born,  all  combined  to  make  this 
seem  the  architecture  of  the  Fathers. 

One  device  for  the  dining-room  walls  is  a  simple 
dado  and  very  simple  woodwork  of  the  character  of 
our  good  village  houses  of  the  very  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  dado  may  be  reduced  to 
about  the  usual  height  of  the  chair-rail — that  is  to 
say,  the  wall  may  be  covered  with  woodwork  to  a 
height  of  about  two  feet  ten  inches  from  the  floor  and 
from  this,  as  from  an  architectural  basement,  rise  the 
pilasters  which  adorn  the  corners  of  the  projecting 
chimney-piece  and  of  the  recess  opposite  to  it. 

The  room  on  page  168  is  a  most  attractive  room 
fitted  up  in  the  true  taste  of  one  who  loves  the  tran- 
quil village  life  of  a  century  ago.  It  is  in  this  way 
that  the  dining-room  and  sitting-room  of  a  prosper- 
ous villager  of  1800  and  the  years  following  were 


THE   DINING-ROOM 


DINING-ROOM    CONTAINING    LIVING-ROOM    FURNITURE 

really  furnished  and  adorned;  and  the  architects  who 
are  the  most  constantly  occupied  with  the  dwelling 
houses  of  the  children  of  those  prosperous  villagers 
—the  men  who  build  in  the  towns  around  Boston 
and  along  the  North  Shore — those  architects  tell  us 
that  the  old  traditions  remain,  and  that  the  family 
who  will  spend  several  thousands  of  dollars  for  a 
painting  will  not  expend  money  for  the  adornment 
of  the  interior — for  the  carving  of  the  mantelpiece, 
for  the  inlaying  of  the  columns — in  short,  they  say 
that  it  is  a  Puritan  tradition  to  spend  nothing  on  your 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

house,  whereas  the  Puritan  tradition  has  nothing  to 
say  about  the  separate  and  portable  work  of  art. 

Other  illustrations  in  this  chapter  show  rooms 
with  the  now  fashionable  square  table,  rooms  with 
elaborately  carved  table  and  chairs,  rooms  with  a 
fireplace  of  unusual  character,  and  rooms  interesting 
for  their  snug  compactness.  It  is  an  attractive  dis- 
play, a  real  picture-gallery  of  pleasant  domestic 
interiors. 


A    BUNGALOW    DINING-ROOM 


176 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE    BEDROOM 

THE  French  lady  has  always  made  her  bedroom 
serve  the  purpose  of  a  sitting-room.  The  French 
bedroom,  at  least  in  the  cities,  is  on  the  floor  with  the 
salon,  the  dining-room,  the  library,  and  must  inevi- 
tably form  suite  with  them.  The  French  bedroom, 
being  a  part  of  the  series  or  group  of  rooms  on  one 
floor  which  are  run  together  in  a  dwelling,  has  the 
same  height  of  ceiling  and  somewhat  the  same  liberal 
decoration  as  the  more  public  rooms  of  the  apparte- 
ment.  Indeed,  in  a  reception  or  entertainment  of 
any  size  the  bedroom  has  to  be  thrown  into  the  other 
rooms  for  a  more  or  less  free  use  by  the  guests  and 
their  hosts.  This  however,  is  done — this  freedom  of 
access  is  made  possible,  this  employment  of  the  room 
as  one  of  a  handsome  series  of  rooms  becomes  natu- 
ral— because  of  the  disposition  of  the  bed  itself  in  an 
alcove  which  can  be  quite  perfectly  screened.  The 
accompanying  plan  shows  this  disposition  as  it  has 
been  for  many  years.  The  large  bedstead  nearly  fills 
the  space  of  the  alcove,  which  is  in  fact  a  small  room 
with  two  openings  in  its  walls;  the  one  a  wide  door- 
way— for  such  indeed  it  is,  though  not  closed  by 
doors — treated  as  part  of  the  ordinance  of  the  larger 
room  without;  the  other  a  quite  narrow  doorway, 
with  a  hinged  door  hung  upon  one  of  its  jambs  and 

177 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


PLAN  FOR  A  BEDROOM 


intended  merely  for  the  use  of  the  care-taker  who 
"  makes  the  bed."  The  alcove  may  be  a  little  larger 
and  have  a  ruelle  between  the  bed  and  the  wall,  wide 
enough  for  a  piece  of  furniture,  and  often  in  old 
times  accommodating  a  chair  or  even  a  fauteuil  in 
which  a  visitor  might  sit.  It  was  the  place  where, 
one  after  another,  the  guests  to  whom  the  lady  would 
do  special  honour  were  received  at  the  time  of  morn- 
ing visits,  the  lady  having  first  submitted  to  the 
process  of  the  toilet,  at  least  to  the  extent  of  having 
her  hair  most  elaborately  dressed. 

This  arrangement  of  the  alcove  has  never  obtained 
in  the  United  States,  the  Americans  having  followed 
English  rather  than  French  precedent  in  the  matter. 
But  another  tendency  is  at  work  which  is  curiously 

178 


THE    BEDROOM 

leading  nearly  in  the  same  direction  as  the  universal 
recognition  of  the  alcove,  and  that  is  the  banishment 
—not  of  the  bed,  but  of  the  toilet  apparatus  gener- 
ally, into  a  separate  room  well  shut  off  from  the  bed- 
room proper.  If  we  put  bath  and  basin  and  all  the 
"  waterworks  "  together  into  a  large  and  sufficiently 
lighted  dressing-room,  then  indeed  the  bedroom, 
having  nothing  to  suggest  special  privacy  except  the 
bed  itself,  may  become  a  sitting-room  as  available  as 
the  boudoir  of  very  large  establishments.  And,  by 
the  way,  has  not  the  boudoir  gone  out?  It  does  seem 
to  the  writer — who  confesses  to  less  constant  study 
of  the  modern  house  plans  than  of  their  predecessors 
in  old  times — that  the  boudoir  is  not  as  well  recog- 
nised a  part  of  the  lady's  private  domain  as  it  was 
in  England  forty  years  ago,  and  in  America  both 
then  and  thereafter  in  houses  of  much  more  than 
common  extent  and  splendour.  But  in  any  case  the 
bedroom  grows  more  and  more  like  unto  a  pleasant 
private  sitting-room  as  the  modern  refinements  have 
sway.  And  as  to  the  bed,  there  is  no  reason  why  the 
housemaids  should  not  resort  to  a  scheme  much,  in 
fashion  in  Germany  and  even  in  Eastern  France 
when  those  were  young  who  are  now  old.  The  cus- 
tom in  the  "  consulate  of  Plancus "  was  to  do  up  the 
bed  in  the  morning,  piling  the  bed-clothes  neatly 
folded,  and  the  big  soft  Feder-bett  or  plumet  togther 
in  the  middle,  and  draw  a  "spread"  over  the  whole 
in  such  a  way  as  to  disguise  utterly  the  shape  and 
even  the  nature  of  the  apparatus  below.  When 
turned  up  this  way  for  the  day  the  bed  looked  like 
anything  but  a  place  to  lie  upon.  At  supper  time 

179 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 


A  BEDROOM  IN  CAMBRIDGE 

the  madchen  came  and  "  made  the  bed  "  —and  then 
you  saw  what  was  meant  by  the  touching  old  ballad, 
in  good  English  and  still  better  in  the  original  Scots, 
by  the  wail  and  prayer  of  the  sick  or  sorrowful  young 
man: 

"Oh,  mother,  mother!   make  my  bed, 
And  make  it  long  and  narrow.  " 

But  indeed  that  way  of  treating  the  bed  so  that  it 
shall  not  look  like  a  bed  is  a  device  that  might  be 
followed.  Far  be  it  from  this  argument  to  insist 
upon  the  merits  of  the  enclosed  and  wood-built  stand- 

180 


THE    BEDROOM 


BEDROOM    AXD    SITTING-ROOM 


ing  bed-place  like  a  bunk  in  an  officer's  cabin  at  sea; 
but  where  the  bedstead  and  the  bed  (the  terms  being 
used  in  the  more  usual  sense)  are  enclosed  by  a  house 
which  reaches  the  floor  and  conceals  everything 
within  itself,  there  is  certainly  an  added  freedom  as 
to  the  use  of  the  rooms  for  the  purposes  of  life  by  day. 
None  of  our  examples  to-day  serve  to  remind  us 
of  any  such  possibilities.  The  twin  bedsteads  now 
and  for  a  dozen  years  much  in  fashion  appear  fre- 
quently; also  the  brass  bedstead,  which  is  greatly 
valued  among  sanitary  scientists.  There  is,  too,  the 

181 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


THE   INFLUENCE   OF   L  ART   NOUVEAU 

old-fashioned  bedstead  built  of  hard  wood  in  slender 
bars,  each  bar  turned  in  the  length  into  an  appear- 
ance of  a  string  of  beads,  and  the  old-fashioned 
double  bed  as  modified  by  very  recent  tendencies  of 
I'art  nouveau.  And  yet  in  almost  all  there  is  evi- 
dence that  the  room  is  intended  for  use  as  a  sitting- 
room,  the  room  where  the  proprietress  receives  her 
lady  friends  to  an  indefinite  extent. 

A  large  bedroom  with  all  its  accessories  may  be 
quite  a  model  apartment  With  its  ample  fireplace 
ready  for  immediate  action;  its  long  and  low  mantel- 

182 


THE    BEDROOM 


A    BEDROOM    UNDER    THE    EAVES 


shelf  with  objets  d'art  ranged  along  it,  pieces  which 
are  perhaps  a  shade  less  effective  as  decorations  than 
those  which  the  dining-room  mantelpiece  would  de- 
mand; its  toilet  table  and  large  glass,  and  its  addi- 
tional Psyche  glass  in  which  the  whole  skirt  may  be 
viewed  even  to  the  floor;  its  dainty  little  stand  having 
two  little  drawers  and  yet  capable  of  being  moved 
about  the  room;  its  writing  table,  large  enough,  solid 
enough  for  the  hasty  notes  to  friends  which  the  occu- 
pant may  choose  to  indite  without  going  to  the 

183 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

library  below;  the  fixed  seat  in  the  deep-seated  win- 
dow and  the  abundant  lighting  from  at  least  two 
sides,  we  have  the  make-up  of  a  charming  room  for 
daily  life. 

On  page  185  is  shown  a  bedroom  of  a  type  now  a 
bit  old-fashioned.  Here,  with  the  complete  set  of 
furniture  in  a  variety  of  white  enamel  ware,  the  wood 
itself  concealed  under  the  uniform  coat  of  milky 
gloss,  a  method  of  adornment  which  is  extended  to 
the  mantelpiece,  is  the  prettiest  room  that  we  have 
yet  mentioned.  Alas,  that  it  should  be  disfigured  by 
the  ugly  monster  under  the  fixed  settle  on  the  left— 
the  steam  radiator  with  its  hideous  lines  and  the 
consciousness  that  one  has — that  for  seven  months  in 
the  year  that  settle  will  be — not  a  pleasant  seat  in  the 
window,  but  a  screen  and  a  disguise  for  the  monster! 
The  old  hot-air  furnace  was  a  better  thing  in  many 
ways  than  the  more  powerful  modern  apparatus. 

There  are  other  rooms  in  which  no  bedstead  is 
visible,  but  which  are  yet  undoubtedly  bed-chambers 
if  one  may  read  their  disposition  and  their  old  fur- 
nishings aright.  In  one  there  is  the  old-fashioned 
high  bureau  (not  a  tallboy,  but  a  bureau  so  tall  that 
it  is  removed  from  the  modern  class  of  "  dressing 
bureaus"  while  yet  it  has  a  mirror  hung  on  the  wall 
above  it) ,  and  the  room  is  either  a  bedroom  or  a  large 
dressing-room  opening  into  the  bedroom  proper. 
What  one  likes  in  such  rooms  is  the  extreme  sim- 
plicity of  fittings  and  decorations.  This  is  indeed 
the  way  to  make  a  room  pretty  at  the  lowest  possible 
cost,  unless  we  are  to  have  the  hangings  of  the  wall 
of  a  woven  stuff  of  some  kind  rather  than  a  wall 

184 


THE    BEDROOM 


AX    OLD-FASHIOXED    BEDROOM 


paper,  in  which  case  a  slightly  greater  expense  will 
have  been  incurred.  Another  room  is  furnished  with 
interesting  pieces  of  old  times,  a  bureau  and  a  little 
round  table  of  much  older  type  than  the  two  chairs, 
but  all  ancestral  in  their  look.  The  room  itself,  with 
its  comparatively  low  ceiling  and  its  very  simple 
fitting  up,  may  be  all  that  can  be  asked  for  as  most 
simple  and  most  gracious;  though  in  modern  houses 
the  dreadful  radiator  is  only  too  apt  to  stand  in  the 
choice  corner  by  the  fireplace  and  explain  why  the 
fireplace  itself  is  bare — without  andiron  and  logs. 

185 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

Page  187  is  a  delightful  room.  Its  fixed  and  perma- 
nent "  finish  "  is  not  seen,  for  curtains  conceal  what 
otherwise  would  be  in  view;  but  the  open  bookcase 
tells  the  story,  and  we  learn  that  this  also  is  of  the 
simplest  woodwork  finished  in  white  enamel,  as  in- 
deed are  the  little  writing  table,  the  arm-chair  drawn 
up  to  it,  and  so  much  of  the  door-trim  as  the  curtain 
allows  us  to  see.  The  chair  and  upholstered  arm- 
chair covered  with  a  striped  silk  material  in  the  best 
taste  of  the  eighteenth  century,  are  grouped  in  the 
sentimental  way  with  the  low  stand  bearing  the 
workbasket  and  the  vase  of  roses;  but  let  no  reader 
suppose  that  the  word  "  sentimental "  is  used  other- 
wise than  in  the  good  sense  of  betokening  sentiment. 
All  this  is  of  the  olden-time  genuine  American  re- 
finement of  ancestral  dignity;  but  the  writing  table 
is  crowned  by  a  desk  telephone  and  that  feature 
"  dates "  the  whole  composition  within  a  decade  at 
least. 

In  all  this  nothing  has  been  said  of  folding  bed- 
steads. We  are  told,  and  on  good  authority,  that  they 
are  made  nowadays  in  strict  accordance  with  sani- 
tary requirements,  and  it  is  true  that  even  in  high 
grade  New  York  City  hotels  this  modern  invention 
has  been  introduced,  and  with  such  success  that  a 
room  already  free  from  the  apparatus  of  the  toilet 
as  above  described,  is  made  into  a  sitting  room  or 
anything  else  (at  least  in  appearance)  by  the  sub- 
stitution of  what  seems  a  great  bookcase  or  mirror- 
fronted  wardrobe  for  that  which  is  indeed  the  place 
of  slumber.  This,  however,  is  not  quite  our  subject 
to-day.  No  room  need  be  ashamed  to  seem  frankly 

186 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 


A  COLONIAL   BEDROOM 

what  it  is,  and  we  might  as  well  call  it  a  bedroom 
when  the  bed  is  in  another  room  as  when  there  is  no 
longer  any  visible  bedstead.  Therefore  it  is  that 
we  are  more  inclined  to  consider  one  or  two  modern 
plans  which  seem  to  be  useful  in  the  direction  indi- 
cated above — the-direction  of  separating  the  toilet 
apparatus  from  the  bedroom,  and  thereby  making 
the  bedroom  a  pleasant  place  in  which  to  sit  and, 
indeed,  to  live. 

Here  is  a  plan  (page  190)  in  use  in  some  of  the 
modern  hotels,   and   its   application  to  the   private 

1 88 


THE    BEDROOM 


A    BEDROOM    SUITE 


house  is  obvious  and  easy.  The  door  A  is  not  abso- 
lutely essential;  its  chief  purpose,  indeed,  is  to  give 
the  bedroom  itself  a  more  complete  and  carefully 
closed-in  appearance  when  it  is  shut.  The  ventila- 
tion of  the  room  by  the  aid  of  the  fanlight  over  the 
entrance  door  B  is  a  little  easier  without  the  interpo- 
sition of  the  door  A.  The  use  of  such  a  door  must 
always  be  a  matter  of  private  choice.  The  bathroom 
is  large  enough,  of  course,  for  its  purpose,  and  there 
is  a  window  in  the  wall  which  may  or  mav  not  be 

*/  «/ 

left  open  for  a  large  part  of  the  day.  The  reader  is 
reminded  that  with  modern  plumbing  kept  in  good 

189 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 


PLAN    FOR   BEDROOM    AND.  BATH 


order  the  room  in  which  the  waterworks  are  ar- 
ranged is  no  harder  to  ventilate  than  any  other  room 
in  the  house.  The  most  troublesome  of  all  its  appli- 
ances, the  waste  pipes  of  the  bath-tub  and  the  basin, 
are  themselves  harmless  under  such  modern  con- 
ditions. The  great  closet  opposite  the  bathroom 
should  have  an  electric  bulb  inside  the  door  and  this 
will  be  sufficient  to  make  the  shelves  above  and  hang- 
ing space  below  far  more  available  and  far  more  easy 
to  keep  clean  and  sweet  than  even  in  the  homes  of 
our  ancestors. 

Another  type  of  room,  that  with  which  a  large 
dressing  room  is  associated,  has  the  exceptional  ad- 
vantage that  the  two  divisions  together  occupy  the 

190 


THE    BEDROOM 

whole  end  of  the  pleasant  house  in  Cambridge  in 
which  they  are  to  be  found.  The  bedstead,  set  with 
its  head  against  the  wall,  has  a  window  opposite  its 
foot,  but  this  window  need  never  be  open  during  the 
hours  of  repose,  because  there  is  a  bay  window  admit- 
ting the  air  all  the  time,  and  at  the  proper  hours  the 
blessed  light  of  early  morning  which  is  still  kept 
from  shining  into  the  eyes  of  the  sleeper.  The  toilet 
apparatus  being  relegated  to  the  smaller  room  on  the 
right,  there  is  left  space  for  the  bookcase,  for  various 
tables,  and  most  of  all  for  a  working  table  in  the 
most  charming  of  all  situations,  namely,  in  the  throat 
of  the  bay  window.  The  bedroom  of  which  this  is 
a  reminiscence  is  certainly  the  pleasantest  room  in 
which  the  writer  ever  spent  a  night. 


191 


- 


CHAPTER   X 

THE    KITCHEN 

As  a  subject  for  discussion,  it  may  seem,  at  first 
glance,  that  the  kitchen  of  a  house  promises  little  of 
value  or  interest,  at  least  to  the  male  portion  of  the 
community.  The  conception  and  development  of  the 
drawing-room,  hall  or  library  doubtless  appear  at 
first  sight  more  attractive,  but  let  us  see  if  even 
the  less  prominent  and  often  neglected  kitchen  may 
not  afford  profitable  consideration.  In  animal  life, 
human  or  otherwise,  regular  and  continued  exist- 
ence is  dependent  upon  the  proper  discharge  of 
the  functions  of  a  digestive  system.  No  less  is  a 
home  dependent  for  its  smooth  running  upon  a 
well-organised  kitchen  department.  To  this  end, 
it  must  be  well  planned,  well  constructed  and  sup- 
plied with  up-to-date  furnishings.  In  regard  to 
the  latter  more  particularly,  the  kitchen  of  to-day 
is  a  great  transformation  and  departure  from  the 
same  apartment  in  use  one  or  two  generations  ago. 
In  good  old  primitive  days,  kitchen  and  living- 
room  were  often  one  and  the  same.  There  is  cer- 
tainly a  good  deal  of  romantic  charm  about  such  a 
room  in  an  old  English  or  early  American  home, 
whether  one  has  ever  actually  seen  it  or  only  become 
familiar  with  it  in  history  and  fiction.  There  were 
the  wainscoted  walls  and  beamed  ceiling,  well 

192 


THE    KITCHEN 

smoked  and  begrimed;  the  great  brick  fireplace  with 
burning  logs  and  steaming  kettles  on  the  swinging 
cranes;  the  floor  of  wide,  well-worn  boards;  the  un- 
varnished chairs  and  table  of  oak  and  the  rows  of 
burnished  pans  and  old  china  on  convenient  racks. 
On  the  deep-set  window  ledge  smiled  potted  plants 
and  in  a  corner  stood  the  spinning  wheel.  Connect- 
ing with  it  was  the  woodshed,  which  in  turn  opened 
into  the  barn.  Everything  was  convenient  and  handy 
for  the  housewife  and  arranged  with  an  idea  of  mini- 
mising labour.  There  are,  doubtless,  many  who  now 
own  palatial  homes  in  town  and  country,  having 
every  luxurious  appointment,  who  feel  a  longing  at 
times  for  a  good  square  meal  in  the  old  home  of 
bygone  days.  Certain  it  is  that  brain  as  well  as 
brawn  have  been  produced  by  just  such  homely 
living. 

In  planning  homes  for  the  well-to-do  of  to-day, 
homes  of  generous  size  and  luxurious  appointments, 
it  is  to  be  feared  that  both  architects  and  builders  are 
at  times  at  fault  in  their  arrangement  of  the  kitchen 
and  its  subsidiary  rooms.  In  their  desire  to  produce 
a  handsome  scheme  for  the  showier  rooms,  they  have 
been  known  to  ignore  the  claims  of  that  part  of  the 
anatomy  of  the  house  which  is  below  stairs  or  placed 
well  out  of  the  public  gaze.  It  would  seem  that  to 
the  kitchen  was  given  such  place  and  space  as  re- 
mained after  all  other  considerations  had  received 
attention.  If  not  actually  bad  in  size  or  shape,  it  is 
often  a  constant  source  of  annoyance  because  no  atten- 
tion has  been  paid  to  utilitarian  considerations.  And 
when  the  lady  of  the  house  has  condemned  the 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

kitchen  she  will  likely  make  statements  not  calcu- 
lated to  swell  the  breast  of  the  architect  with  pride, 
no  matter  how  superb  his  fagade.  With  a  hope  of 
demonstrating  the  possibilities  of  the  subject,  let  us 
take  up  some  detailed  considerations. 

In  the  case  of  a  town  house,  built,  let  us  say,  on  a 
lot  not  a  corner  one,  the  location  of  the  kitchen  has 
limitations  as  to  choice  of  exposure  to  any  particular 
point  of  the  compass.  It  is  desirable  that  the  expos- 
ure should  be  to  the  south  or  west  or  between  the  two. 
There  is  no  denying  the  sanitary  result  of  direct  sun- 
light aside  from  the  benefit  of  having  the  prevailing 
breezes  for  ventilation,  and.  our  kitchen  must  be  light, 
sanitary  and  easily  ventilated.  In  the  house  in  ques- 
tion, it  will  generally  be  located  under  the  dining- 
room  or  somewhere  in  that  story  having  service  from 
the  street.  It  will  probably  be  possible  to  get  light 
from  one  side  only.  The  windows  should  be  ample, 
close  up  to  the  ceiling  and  as  nearly  in  the  centre  of 
the  wall  space  as  possible.  To  get  cross  ventilation 
is  the  problem.  This  should  be  accomplished,  with- 
out making  use  of  the  hall  of  other  basement  room, 
by  arranging  a  small  air  shaft  or  flue  on  the  side  of 
room  opposite  the  windows.  This  shaft  or  flue  is 
not  expected  to  carry  off  the  smoke  arising  from 
cooking  operations,  which  should  be  carried  away 
in  a  vent  flue  opening  above  the  range.  Of  course, 
a  window  opening  to  the  outside  would  be  preferable 
to  the  air  shaft  or  flue,  and  the  sill  of  such  a  window 
could  well  be  kept  high  above  the  floor  so  as  not  to 
obstruct  wall  space  more  than  necessary.  Having 
arranged  our  kitchen  with  regard  to  lighting  and 

194 


o 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

ventilation,  its  access  should  be  considered.  The  con- 
ventional long  hall  or  passage  to  the  front  area  on  the 
same  level  as  the  kitchen  is  not  susceptible  of  much 
variation,  providing  the  latter  is  at  the  rear  of  the 
house.  In  the  popular  American  basement  plan,  the 
service  entrance  is  arranged  at  one  side,  with  the  main 
entrance  in  the  middle  or  at  the  other  side.  Differ- 
ences in  floor  levels  are  provided  for  by  steps  within 
the  house.  If  in  any  wise  possible,  a  sunken  area 
reached  by  six  or  more  outside  steps  should  be 
avoided  as  being  dangerous  in  winter  and  unsatisfac- 
tory at  all  times. 

The  suburban  house  being  capable  of  fairly  ideal 
arrangement,  there  is  no  good  excuse  for  an  ill 
arrangement  of  the  kitchen.  From  utilitarian  con- 
siderations it  should  be,  and  generally  is,  placed  on 
the  same  level  as  the  dining-room  and  in  a  separate 
wing.  In  such  cases  the  matters  of  cross  ventilation 
and  lighting  are  not  difficult  to  arrange  and  the  de- 
sired exposure  easily  is  obtained. 

The  proper  size  for  a  kitchen  is  determined  en- 
tirely by  the  actual  service  required  of  it.  It  should 
be  compact  without  being  cramped,  with  the  idea 
of  placing  fixtures  and  utensils  within  easiest  reach. 
Too  much  room  is  quite  as  undesirable  as  too  little, 
and  the  happy  medium  should  be  carefully  sought. 

In  regard  to  the  fitting  up  of  our  kitchen,  we 
should  not  allow  anything, to  go  into  it  that  is  not 
first«class  and  thoroughly  up-to-date.  For  flooring, 
tile  and  artificial  stone  are  rejected  by  some  authori- 
ties as  being  unsatisfactory  to  work  on,  gradually 
affecting  the  feet.  Others  insist  on  a  hardwood  floor. 

196 


THE    KITCHEN 

Where  conditions  make  it  possible,  however,  an  un- 
glazed  vitrified  white  tile  is  the  handsomest  and  least 
absorbent  material  and  the  objection  as  to  the  effect  on 
the  feet  can  be  overcome  by  using  lengths  of  fibre  mat- 
ting where  most  wear  comes.  These  can  be  removed 
at  will  and  the  floor  scoured.  Rubber  tiling  is  also  a 
suitable  flooring  material,  and  produces  a  handsome 
effect.  It  can  be  laid  on  wood  or  cement  and  is  avail- 
able under  almost  all  conditions.  The  side  wralls 
should  be  finished  with  white  glazed  tile  to  a  height 
of  six  feet  or  more,  having  a  concave  base  moulding 
and  neat  cap  piece,  with  such  simple  lines  of  col- 
oured tile  as  good  taste  would  suggest.  The  walls 
above  the  tile  and  the  ceiling  may  be  covered  with  a 
material  in  the  nature  of  an  oil-cloth,  made  for  that 
purpose  and  in  appropriate  colourings  and  patterns. 
Thus  the  room  may  be  given  a  washing  over  all 
parts  and  kept  clean  and  fresh  as  the  most  fastidious 
could  require.  The  architraves  or  casings  of  the 
doorways  should  have  white  marble  base  blocks. 

Thus  far  we  have  been  constructing  our  room;  the 
appliances  necessary  to  make  it  of  use  now  invite 
attention.  The  range  is  easily  first  in  importance.  It 
should  be  so  located  as  to  receive  strong  side  light  on 
its  top  and  at  the  same  time  not  be  directly  in  a  cross 
draught  that  interferes  with  the  fire.  The  so-called 
French  range,  with  its  black  steel  sides  and  nickel- 
plated  trimmings,  is  a  handsome  piece  of  kitchen  fur- 
niture. At  one  end,  it  will  have  a  section  devoted  to 
cooking  with  gas.  At  the  proper  height,  a  project- 
ing curved  hood  will  collect  most  of  the  smoke 
arising  from  broiling  and  allow  it  to  be  drawn  into 

197 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

a  vent  flue  in  the  chimney.  Inasmuch  as  the  hot- 
water  boiler  is  not  to  be  considered  a  handsome  fea- 
ture, it  is  well  to  conceal  it  if  possible  in  some 
convenient  closet  or  else  place  it  on  the  chimney 
breast  in  a  horizontal  position  above  the  range.  This 
relieves  the  difficulty  of  keeping  the  floor  clean  under 
and  behind  it  when  it  is  set  on  a  standard. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  room  from  the  range 
we  may  locate  the  sink,  and  between  the  two  place 
the  table.  A  space  of  about  five  feet  on  each  side  of 
the  table  will  be  found  sufficient  to  allow  of  easy 
movement  and  at  the  same  time  make  a  convenient 
disposition.  The  porcelain  sink  and  drip-board  and 
nickled  pipes  make  a  fine  effect.  It  is  wise  to  keep 
as  much  as  possible  of  the  supply  and  drain  piping 
exposed.  It  can  be  made  far  from  ugly  and  any  re- 
pairs can  be  made  without  cutting  of  walls  and  floors. 
The  table  can  be  arranged  with  convenient  drawers 
for  kitchen  cutlery  and  other  necessary  small  imple- 
ments; also  a  deep  metal-lined  drawer  for  throwing 
refuse  temporarily,  to  be  emptied  into  the  regular 
metal  can  or  barrel  every  day.  A  lower  shelf  will 
be  found  handy.  The  top  may  be  of  wood  or  marble 
and  have  a  narrow  plate  shelf  down  the  centre  about 
fifteen  inches  above  it,  carried  on  end  brackets  and 
leaving  the  top  open  under  it.  The  gas  or  electric 
light  fixture  should  be  above  the  table,  with  a  side 
bracket  above  the  sink. 

Very  handsome  refrigerators  are  in  the  market, 
having  glass  or  tile  linings  and  compartments  for 
every  conceivable  use.  The  exteriors  are  of  wood  or 
tile  and  they  are  altogether  a  most  sanitary  place  for 

198 


the  keeping  of  food.  Some  housekeepers  prefer  a 
built-in  box,  but  there  is  little,  if  any,  gain  in  going 
to  that  expense,  as  the  portable  ones  meet  every  re- 
quirement. In  the  case  of  the  town  house,  the 
refrigerator  may  best  be  located  in  the  hall  between 
the  street  entrance  and  the  kitchen  and  handy  to  the 
latter.  It  should,  of  course,  be  set  in  a  well-lighted 
place  if  possible.  The  drainage  can  be  taken  care  of 
by  arranging  a  pipe  to  discharge  above  a  sink  in  the 
cellar. 

The  kitchen  closet  may  be  devoted  almost  entirely 
to  the  holding  of  pots,  kettles  and  other  bulky  uten- 
sils. The  tins  and  agate  ware  should  be  kept  bright 
and  clean  and  hung  on  brass  hooks  in  rows  on  the 
kitchen  wall  where  they  may  have  more  or  less  deco- 
rative value  appropriate  to  the  room.  Some  of  the 
dry  groceries  most  constantly  needed  should  be  in  a 
small  and  shallow  wall  cupboard  or  a  narrow  shelf 
within  easy  reach.  A  cold-storage  closet  should  be 
arranged  for  the  keeping  of  vegetables  and  dry  gro- 
ceries in  bulk,  possibly  in  a  laundry  extension,  off 
from  the  kitchen. 

In  the  plan  of  a  town  house  with  the  kitchen  below- 
stairs,  the  butler's  pantry  is  of  course  located  on  the 
dining-room  level.  A  single  window  is  sufficient  for 
light,  as  a  rule.  Some  arrangements  permit  of  a 
skylight.  Provision  for  the  table  china  is  made  in 
dressers,  with  glazed  doors.  These  should  extend  to 
the  ceiling,  if  necessary,  making  storage  cupboards 
of  the  upper  portion.  The  pantry  sink  is  of  porce- 
lain and  of  open-plumbing  type.  To  a  height  of 
two  feet  and  eight  inches,  the  dressers  should  be 

200 


THE    KITCHEN 

about  twenty-two  inches  deep  and  be  built  with  tiers 
of  drawers,  bread-cutting  slides  and  a  cupboard  or 
two.  The  upper  part  of  the  dressers  should  be  set 
about  fifteen  inches  above  the  lower  and  be  about 
fifteen  inches  deep.  The  cabinetmaker  often  pro- 
duces such  fine  results  in  constructing  these  dresser- 
cases  that  the  mistress  of  the  house  may  be  proud  to 
show  them.  In  the  centre  of  the  pantry  may  be 
placed  the  serving  table.  This  will  have  a  marble 
top  and  have  a  section  arranged  as  a  plate-warmer, 
steam-heated.  The  dumb-waiter  will  occupy  a  con- 
venient corner  and  provide  direct  communication  to 
the  kitchen. 

In  a  detached  or  suburban  house  with  the  kitchen 
on  the  dining-room  level,  the  pantry  will  have  the 
same  furniture  but  be  so  planned  as  to  allow  no  view 
of  the  kitchen  from  the  dining-room  and  have  two 
double-swinging  doors  between,  with  panels  of  glass. 
The  pantry  floor  may  be  a  choice  of  vitrified  tile, 
marble  and  wood.  A  neat  parquetry  floor  is  appro- 
priate. A  kitchen  pantry  is  a  desirable  feature,  de- 
voted to  the  keeping  of  kitchen  crockery  and  the 
sugar  and  flour  barrels.  The  latter  are  concealed  in 
a  sort  of  cupboard  arrangement,  with  hinged  top 
which  gives  easy  access  to  the  barrels  and  forms  a 
shelf  when  not  raised. 

The  laundry  is  a  separate  room,  fitted  with  a  suit- 
able stove,  a  row  of  porcelain  tubs  and  a  closet  for 
keeping  clothes  baskets,  pins,  lines  and  irons.  The 
tubs  must  be  well  lighted.  The  floor  may  be  of 
cement,  laid  off  in  small  squares;  the  walls  of  glazed 
brick  or  painted  plaster.  Space  must  be  allowed 

201 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

for  a  table  and  one  or  more  ironing  boards.  Access 
to  the  yard  must  be  easy  and  a  steam  clothes  drier 
may  be  provided  for  use  in  inclement  weather. 

As  an  adjunct  to  the  kitchen  section  of  the  house,  a 
servants'  hall  is  quite  indispensable.  It  will  serve  as 
dining-room  and  sitting-room  and  be  substantially 
furnished.  It  may  or  may  not  immediately  adjoin 
the  kitchen,  but  should  be  easy  of  access  thereto. 
And  having  thus  described  our  kitchen  and  its  sub- 
sidiary parts,  we  may  complete  its  usefulness  by 
connecting  it  with  the  rest  of  the  house  by  telephone 
to  each  bedroom,  halls,  drawing-room  and  dining- 
room. 


202 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  HOUSE  IN  RELATION  TO  OUT-OF-DOORS 

WHILE  it  is  only  of  recent  years  that  most  towns- 
people have  taken  very  seriously  to  life  in  the  coun- 
try, the  well-to-do  residents  of  Boston  and  its  vicinity 
have  long  been  used  to  passing  a  comparatively  large 
portion  of  their  time  on  their  country  places,  and 
spending  trouble  and  money  in  making  the  estates  all 
that  country  estates  should  be.  It  is  not  a  matter 
of  accident  consequently  that  a  considerable  propor- 
tion of  the  most  elaborate  formal  gardens  laid  out  by 
American  architects  have  been  laid  out  on  country 
places  situated  not  very  far  from  Boston. 

The  garden  of  "Weld,"  illustrated  in  this  chapter, 
is  in  Brookline,  and  has  been  peculiarly  successful 
in  reproducing  under  American  conditions  the  high 
style,  the  elaborate  design  and  peculiar  fragrance  of 
the  old  Italian  gardens.  The  estate  of  "Weld"  is 
situated  on  the  top  of  a  high  hill,  the  plateau  of 
which  is  pretty  well  covered  by  the  house,  the 
grounds  immediately  surrounding  it  and  the  garden. 
From  the  house  and  garden  the  land,  which  falls 
away  sharply,  is  well  wooded,  and  the  garden  conse- 
quently is  provided  with  the  shelter  and  background 
offered  by  fine  trees. 

The  house  is  on  the  right,  and  between  it  and  the 
garden  is  in  the  first  place  a  bowling  green,  the 

203 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

terminal  feature  of  which  is  an  exedra,  while  back 
of  the  exedra  is  a  grove  of  trees  to  shut  off  the  bowl- 
ing green  and  the  house  from  the  garden.  There 
are  two  walks  on  the  boundary  of  the  bowling  green, 
and  leading  through  the  grove  to  the  two  gazebos 
at  the  upper  corners  of  the  garden.  There  are  also 
two  other  walks  leading  through  the  grove,  and 
coming  out  on  the  garden,  about  midway  between 
the  gazebos  on  one  side  and  the  line  of  the  mall  on 
the  other. 

The  gazebos,  mentioned  above,  are  situated  in  the 
two  corners  of  the  garden  nearer  the  house.  As  one 
enters  the  garden  by  way  of  the  inner  covered  alleys 
through  the  grove  one  sees  the  garden  almost  on  the 
line  of  the  illustration  on  page  205.  The  cross  view 
of  the  garden  at  the  end  near  the  house  is  figured  on 
page  208.  Down  the  centre  of  the  garden  is  a  stately 
mall  which  leads  to  the  very  beautiful  old  fountain, 
while  beyond  the  fountain  is  the  pergola. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  characteristics  of  the 
garden  is  the  differences  of  level,  of  which  there  are 
three.  The  highest  level  is  that  of  the  terrace  walks 
at  the  two  sides,  which  is  the  same  as  the  level  of  the 
gazebos.  Then  there  is  a  lower  terrace  walk,  paved 
in  brick,  of  which  a  glimpse  may  be  obtained  in  the 
illustration  on  page  207,  and  which  is  on  the  same 
level  with  the  fountain  and  the  pergola.  Finally 
there  is  the  lowest  level,  that  of  the  mall  and  the 
flower  beds.  The  layout  of  the  garden  is  just  about 
a  square,  but  the  mall  down  the  centre  line  empha- 
sises its  length.  The  different  levels,  the  wealth  of 
foliage  in  the  background,  and  the  many  attractive 

204 


HOUSE  IN  RELATION  TO  OUT-OF-DOORS 


THE    GARDEN    OF    WELD 

features  of  the  layout  make  the  garden  one  of  the 
most  interesting  in  the  country. 

Such  a  garden  is  of  course  one  on  a  large  scale  and 
demands  a  house  in  accordance  with  it.  It  is  indeed 
a  very  unfortunate  thing  for  American  domestic 
architecture  that  the  better  architects,  particularly  in 
the  East,  so  rarely  design  small  houses  and  grounds. 

205 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

The  plan  of  a  small  house  is  frequently  even  more 
difficult  to  work  out  than  that  of  a  much  larger  one, 
and,  as  like  as  not,  it  is  equally  difficult  to  fit  a  good- 
looking  design  to  the  plan.  It  requires  more,  not 
less  ingenuity,  to  make  a  modest  sum  of  money  go  a 
long  way,  yet  an  architect  is  paid  very  much  less  in 
the  case  of  an  inexpensive  house  than  in  the  case  of 
an  expensive  one.  The  consequence  is  that  many 
architects,  and  these  the  most  conscientious  members 
of  their  profession,  cannot  afford  to  undertake  small 
jobs,  and  houses  of  a  certain  cost  are  placed  in  the 
hands  of  builders  or  turned  over  to  inferior  architects 
or  draughtsmen.  It  is  only  in  the  West  that  the  best 
local  architects  are  still  willing  to  undertake  this 
comparatively  unremunerative  class  of  work,  and 
that  is  only  because  the  proportion  of  highly  remu- 
nerative domestic  work  is  still  comparatively  small 
in  that  part  of  the  country.  It  seems  inevitable  that 
the  man  who  wants  to  build  a  good  but  inexpensive 
house  will  have  to  pay  comparatively  more  for  his 
plans  than  the  man  who  builds  a  good  but  more 
expensive  house. 

A  comparatively  inexpensive  house  design  by  a 
good  architect  consequently  affords  an  extremely 
welcome  object  lesson,  and  the  residence  at  Had- 
lyme,  Conn.,  is  such  a  discovery.  Like  Weld,  it 
consists  of  an  adaptation  of  an  Italian  villa's  grounds 
to  a  New  England  landscape. 

In  the  house  the  large  Long  Island  shingles  have 
been  used.  They  afford  a  more  interesting  surface 
and  contribute  a  more  natural  and  idiomatic  ap- 
pearance, make  it  look  as  appropriate  amid  its 

206 


HOUSE  IN  RELATION  TO  OUT-OF-DOORS 

somewhat  rough  surroundings  as  a  good  New  Eng- 
land farmhouse  would  look,  and  at  the  same  time 
give  it  the  distinction  imparted  by  a  very  much 
higher  tradition  of  style. 

Very  simple  means  have  been  used  to  obtain  this 
most  charming  effect.  The  site  affords  a  prospect 
across  and  along  a  river  which  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  views  of  the  kind  in  this  country,  and  the 
house  is  situated  and  planned  so  that  its  porches  and 
living  rooms  overlook  this  river  view.  The  edge 
of  the  plateau  on  which  the  house  is  located  is  out- 
lined by  a  low  stone  wall,  which  is  separated  from 
the  building  by  a  flat  bare  lawn,  so  that  there  is 
nothing  to  interfere  with  the  enjoyment  of  the  natu- 
ral beauties  of  the  site.  The  garden  has  been  placed 
on  one  side,  its  axis  coinciding  with  the  central  line 
of  the  two  porches  and  the  colonnade  which  connects 
them,  and  it  is  assuredly  one  of  the  most  charming 
small  gardens  in  this  country.  Its  scale  harmonises 
with  that  of  the  .house  and  its  character  with  that  of 
its  surroundings.  In  general  appearance  it  is  just 
a  little  rough,  as  it  should  be,  considering  the  rough- 
ness of  some  of  the  immediately  adjoining  land,  but 
its  roughness  has  not  the  remotest  suggestion  either 
of  being  affected  or  slovenly.  It  is  merely  an  addi- 
tional illustration  of  the  happy  completeness  with 
which  the  design  of  the  house  and  the  garden  has  been 
wrought  into  the  site.  A  better  example  could  not 
be  desired  of  a  "  formal"  plan  which  depends  upon 
the  use  of  simple  means  and  which  reaches  a  novel, 
picturesque  and  idiomatic  effect. 

On  a  scale  between  this  and  Weld  are  a  house  and 

209 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


HOUSE   OF    FREDERICK   CULVER,    ESQ.,    HADLYME,    CONN. 


garden  at  Warren,  Rhode  Island.  The  plot  of  land 
on  which  the  house  is  situated  is  neither  very  large 
nor  very  small.  It  neither  rises  to  the  dignity  of  a 
country  estate  nor  sinks  to  the  comparative  insignifi- 
cance of  a  suburban  villa  site.  It  comprises  some  ten 
acres  of  land,  so  near  to  a  large  city  that  the  trolley 
cars  skirt  its  boundaries,  but  so  far  away  that  the 
immediate  neighbourhood  is  not  thickly  settled.  Its 
owner  consequently  has  as  much  room  as  he  needs 


210 


1 


«. — f    r 

.0   r? 


LAV-OUT  OF  A    HOUSE   AND  GARDEN 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

in  which  to  satisfy  all  the  interests  of  country  life 
except  those  connected  with  a  large  farm.  When  a 
well-to-do  family  occupies  a  place  of  this  size,  they 
generally  do  it  with  the  fullest  intention  of  enjoying 
as  varied  and  abundant  a  country  life  as  a  few  acres 
of  land  will  permit,  but  unfortunately  they  rarely 
believe  that  an  architect  can  be  of  any  assistance  to 
them,  except  in  the  design  of  the  house.  They  usually 
consider  themselves  fully  competent  to  lay  out  the 
roads,  select  the  situation  of  the  house,  the  stable,  and 
the  tennis  court,  and  plant  the  flower  garden.  The 
architect's  advice  may  be  asked  about  certain  details, 
but  it  is  a  very  rare  occurrence  to  find  a  place  of  this 
kind  which  has  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  an  archi- 
tect from  start  to  finish,  and  designed  as  a  whole. 
Some  of  the  larger  estates  have  been  so  planned  and 
designed,  but  the  function  of  the  architect  in  relation 
to  the  smaller  estates  usually  ceases  when  he  has 
supervised  the  erection  of  the  buildings. 

It  is  obvious,  however,  that  an  estate  of  several 
acres,  no  less  than  an  estate  of  several  hundred  acres, 
should  be  developed  under  the  eye  of  the  architect, 
and  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  class  of 
Americans  who  buy  an  estate  of  this  size  and  build 
upon  it  should  be  brought  to  realise  that  the  archi- 
tectural treatment  of  the  grounds  is  inseparably  con- 
nected with  the  architectural  effect  of  the  house. 
When  they  fail  to  take  competent  advice  as  to  the 
proper  layout  and  planting  of  their  grounds,  they 
are  sinning  against  their  own  opportunities  just  as 
flagrantly  as  if  they  erected  a  vulgar  and  tawdry 
house.  Every  one  of  these  smaller  estates  will  pos- 

212 


HOUSE  IN  RELATION  TO  OUT-OF-DOORS 

sess  certain  advantages  as  to  location,  view,  exposure, 
the.  character  and  situation  of  the  trees,  and  the  like, 
which  call  for  a  certain  particular  way  of  approach, 
certain  particular  means  of  emphasising  the  good 
points  and  of  evading  or  concealing  the  bad.  And 
when  such  an  estate  starts  with  a  complete  and  ap- 
propriate layout,  its  owner  will  be  fully  repaid  for 
his  larger  expenditure  by  the  economy  with  which 
his  place  can  be  subsequently  developed.  An  ill- 
planned  estate  means  a  continual  process  of  tearing 
down  and  reconstructing,  whereas  one  that  is  well 
planned  will  become  larger  and  older  without  muti- 
lation and  waste.  Age  and  growth  will  only  mean 
the  confirmation  of  the  original  excellence  ot  the 
design. 

The  estate  in  Warren  consists  of  a  long  and 
narrow  strip  of  land  running  from  an  important 
road  to  the  Sound.  This  land  is  level,  rather  than 
undulating,  but  as  it  approaches  the  water  it  slopes 
gently  down  to  the  sea.  The  most  attractive  view 
was  that  looking  towards  the  Sound,  and  the  house 
had  to  be  placed  and  planned  so  that  its  inhabitants 
could  enjoy  the  outlook  in  that  direction.  The  im- 
portant natural  beauty  of  the  site  was  an  apple 
orchard,  not  far  from  the  road,  and  immediately 
adjoining  one  boundary  of  the  property.  The  area 
of  the  estate  was  large  enough  to  afford  abundant 
space  for  stables,  gardens  and  out-buildings,  but  not 
so  large  that  it  could  afford  to  be  indifferent  to  its 
neighbours.  Situated  as  it  was  on  a  thoroughfare, 
with  trolley  cars  passing  to  and  fro,  and  bordered  by 
places  similar  in  size  and  character,  it  had  to  be 

213 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

planned  in  a  somewhat  exclusive  manner,  so  that  its 
beauties  could  not  be  impaired  or  spoiled  by  sur- 
roundings which  could  not  be  controlled. 

Wherever  necessary,  the  land  has  been  separated 
from  the  road  or  from  adjoining  property  by  a  con- 
crete wall.  The  precise  location  of  the  house  was 
determined  partly  by  the  desire  to  incorporate  the 
apple  trees  in  the  garden,  and  partly  by  the  necessity 
of  seeing  the  water  and  the  islands  beyond  from  a 
proper  distance.  The  long  dimension  of  the  house 
was  naturally  made  parallel  to  the  road,  so  that  its 
front  porch  would  face  the  approach,  and  its  back 
porch  command  the  water  view.  A  straight  drive- 
way bordered  with  trees  and  shrubbery  leads  from 
the  road  to  the  forecourt  in  front  of  the  house,  and 
these  trees  enclose  a  vista  which  is  terminated  by  the 
colonnade  and  the  entablature  of  the  front  porch. 
On  the  right  of  the  driveway,  near  the  road,  but 
surrounded  by  trees,  is  the  stable,  while  further 
along  on  the  same  side  is  the  tennis  court.  The 
narrower  space  to  the  left  of  the  driveway  is  occu- 
pied first  by  the  vegetable  garden  and  then  by  the 
flower  garden,  but  the  flower  garden  is  divided  both 
from  the  driveway  and  the  vegetable  garden  by 
high  walls,  so  that  one  sees  nothing  from  the  drive- 
way but  the  wall  and  the  trees.  The  garden  can  be 
reached  by  a  gate  in  the  wall ;  but  this  gate  is  merely 
a  matter  of  convenience.  Architecturally  the  gar- 
den is  supposed  to  be  approached  from  the  porch  on 
the  left  side  of  the  house.  The  garden  itself  does 
not,  indeed,  extend  all  the  way  to  this  porch;  but  one 
can  step  from  the  porch  onto  the  grass,  and  from 

214 


• 


HOUSE  IN  RELATION  TO  OUT-OF-DOORS 

there  a  few  steps  will  take  one  to  the  garden.  The 
garden,  which  is  enclosed  on  every  other  side,  is,  of 
course,  left  open  in  the  direction  of  the  water.  A 
simpler  and  more  serviceable  plan  could  not  be 
imagined,  yet  it  takes  advantage  of  every  natural 
advantage  of  the  site,  and  carefully  shuts  off  every 
aspect  of  the  land  which  is  either  less  beautiful  or  of 
dubious  value.  As  one  examines  the  layout,  it  seems 
so  inevitable  that  one  can  hardly  imagine  any  other 
arrangement  of  the  site,  yet  simple,  compact  and 
inevitable  as  it  appears,  it  might  in  less  skilful  hands 
have  gone  wrong  at  a  hundred  different  points.  A 
slight  change  in  the  location  of  the  house  and  the 
flower  garden,  in  the  method  of  approach,  or  in  the 
plan  of  the  house  in  relation  to  the  plan  of  the 
grounds  would  have  thrown  out  the  whole  scheme, 
which  now  fills  the  allotted  space  very  much  as  a 
well-composed  sculptured  relief  fills  without  over- 
crowding a  selected  surface. 

There  is  a  prevalent  impression  among  a  number 
of  architectural  amateurs  that  the  charm  of  a  coun- 
try place  depends  upon  a  certain  inconsequence  in 
its  general  disposition.  They  seem  to  think  that 
when  every  character  and  detail  of  a  house  and 
garden  is  carefully  subordinated  to  its  service  in  a 
comprehensive  scheme,  the  result  must  necessarily 
be  frigid  and  uninteresting.  It  would  be  well  for 
such  people  to  consider  how  such  a  house  and  garden 
as  that  of  Mr.  Hutcheson  fits  in  with  this  general 
theory.  Here  is  a  place  which  has  been  planned 
throughout  without  scrupulous  attention  to  detail, 
and  yet  it  is  most  assuredly  one  of  the  most  charm- 

217 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

ing  places  in  this  country.  Moreover,  its  charm 
does  not  depend,  as  does  that  of  so  many  English 
houses,  upon  the  mellowing  and  softening  effect  of 
time,  for  the  garden  had  been  planted  only  one  sum- 
mer when  the  accompanying  photographs  were 
taken.  It  depends  absolutely  upon  the  propriety  of 
the  whole  scheme.  Of  course,  this  was  not  some- 
thing, which  any  architect  could  have  reached  by 
the  application  of  certain  principles  or  rules.  The 
appropriate  scheme  was  the  issue  of  the  architect's 
ability  to  "see"  the  house  and  garden  best  adapted 
to  the  site,  and  the  greater  or  smaller  charm  of  a 
country  place  will  finally  depend  upon  the  greater 
or  smaller  propriety  of  this  initial  conception.  A 
country  house  can  undoubtedly  be  charming  even 
though  inconsequential  in  many  respects;  but  the 
highest  charm  can  attach  only  to  a  place  whose 
beauty  does  not  reside  merely  in  more  or  less  im- 
portant details.  The  highest  charm  is  a  matter  of 
beauty  and  style,  as  well  as  of  atmosphere. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  describe  this  house  and  gar- 
den in  detail.  The  illustrations  will  tell  the  reader 
more  at  one  glance  than  elaborate  descriptions.  Yet 
I  should  like  to  call  attention  to  the  admirable  sim- 
plicity of  the  design  of  the  house,  both  inside  and 
out.  Architectural  ornament  has  been  used  with 
the  utmost  economy,  and  the  effect  is  obtained  en- 
tirely by  giving  just  the  proper  emphasis  to  the 
salient  parts  of  the  facade.  The  order  and  its  pedi- 
ment, for  instance,  has  a  bold  projection  on  the 
front  and  a  still  bolder  one  in  the  rear,  but  in  neither 
case  is  it  overbold.  It  is  always  a  difficult  thing  to 

218 


HOUSE  IN  RELATION  TO  OUT-OF-DOORS 

make  a  feature  of  this  kind  count  just  as  it  should 
in  relation  to  the  house,  because  it  takes  only  a  small 
error  in  scale  to  throw  out  one  of  these  big 
porticoes;  and  when  they  are  either  too  weak  or  too 
strong,  instead  of  pulling  the  whole  design  together, 
they  break  it  to  pieces.  In  the  present  instance,  the 
porticoes  are  a  source  of  integrity  and  strength,  and 
by  the  very  bigness  of  their  scale  they  have  enabled 
the  architect  to  economise  in  the  use  of  smaller  de- 
tails. The  whole  effect  shows  a  combination  of  refine- 
ment and  strength  very  rare  in  American  domestic 
architecture. 


221 


CHAPTER  XII 

NEW  USES  OF  OLD  FORMS 

AMERICAN  use  of  European  architectural  and  deco- 
rative forms  has  passed  through  a  number  of  phases. 
There  was  a  time  toward  the  middle  of  the  century 
when  our  imitation  of  the  historic  styles  of  Euro- 
pean domestic  architecture  aspired  to  be  faithful, 
but  was  too  ignorant  to  succeed.  The  architect  of 
1850  or  thereabouts,  particularly  in  the  vicinity  of 
New  York,  designed  in  any  style  his  client  pleased, 
and  was  as  willing  to  supply  a  Florentine  villa  as  to 
furnish  a  Gothic  cottage,  or  a  Swiss  chalet.  He  be- 
lieved, in  the  depths  of  his  innocence  and  ignorance, 
that  the  houses  with  which  he  spotted  the  landscape 
were  the  "  real  thing,"  and  were  made  authentic  by 
the  high  sources  from  which  they  derived;  but  as  a 
matter  of  fact  his  whimsical  copies,  in  which  a  fre- 
quent ponderousness  of  construction  was  combined 
with  restless  frivolity  of  effect,  generally  bore  the 
same  relation  to  their  models  as  a  child's  drawings 
do  to  the  contour  of  the  human  face.  During  this 
period  the  only  way  in  which  a  desire  for  originality 
expressed  itself,  was  in  the  occasional  combination 
of  several  different  "styles"  in  one  miscellaneous 
and  eccentric  mass.  During  the  next  important 
period  of  residential  construction,  the  early  years  of 
the  eighties,  the  imitative  tendency  which  still  domi- 

222 


PLAN   FOR    A  COUNTRY  HOUSE 


224 


NEW    USES    OF   OLD    FORMS 

nated  the  design  of  brick  and  stone,  if  not  of  frame 
houses,  was  expressed  generally  in  well-informed  re- 
productions of  European  styles;  and  these  copies, 
while  they  had  the  merit  of  being  scholarly,  and  of 
familiarising  the  American  public  with  authentic 
historic  forms,  were  designed  with  a  view  to  stylistic 
fidelity  rather  than  to  the  complex  and  varying  re- 
quirements of  local  propriety.  This  phase,  although 
it  was  an  advance  upon  its  predecessors,  proved 
to  be  quite  as  evanescent.  American  architecture 
could  not  be  satisfied  with  the  well-informed  copy 
any  more  than  with  the  ignorant  one;  and  at  the  pres- 
ent time,  although  both  the  careless  and  the  careful 
copyist  are  still  in  evidence,  the  best  of  the  younger 
American  architects  are  seeking,  in  domestic  as  well 
as  in  business  buildings,  to  reach  a  higher  degree  of 
personal  expression  and  local  propriety. 

It  is  in  the  light  of  this  demand  both  for  personal 
expression  and  local  propriety  that  two  houses,  illus- 
trated in  this  chapter,  can  best  be  understood.  They 
represent  both  in  training  and  in  point  of  view  the 
best  equipment  of  contemporary  American  archi- 
tecture, combining  individual  expression  with  tech- 
nical precision. 

It  is  important  that  an  architect  who  seeks  indi- 
vidual expression  should  seek  it  in  the  right  way, 
because  there  are  in  all  the  fine  arts  a  good  many 
wrong  ways  of  going  about  the  search.  One  of  the 
worst  of  these  is  the  attempt  to  secure  originality  by 
conscious  effort.  Originality,  like  happiness,  is  well 
enough,  provided  it  accrues  from  the  inevitable, 
but,  so  far  as  the  intention  goes,  the  accidental  fruit 

225 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

of  a  man's  work;  yet  the  pursuit  of  originality  is 
fatal,  because  it  seduces  the  architect  or  the  artist  to 
make  his  work  primarily  different  from  that  of  other 
people.  This  is,  of  course,  the  fallacy  and  the  diffi- 
culty which  cheapens  and  sterilises  so  much  of  the 
"  New  Art."  The  only  originality  worth  having  is 
that  which  issues  unconsciously  from  the  frank  and 
well-informed  treatment  of  an  artist's  special  task 
or  material.  In  the  case  of  an  architect  this  desir- 
able originality  must  derive  from  his  ability  to 
adapt  his  design  to  the  conditions  which  it  is  re- 
quired to  meet;  and  in  any  particular  case  this  group 
of  conditions  includes  many  different  members, 
some  of  which  are  frequently  ignored.  The  design 
of  any  particular  dwelling,  for  instance,  should  be 
adapted  to  the  personality  of  its  owner  and  his  man- 
ner of  life;  to  the  site  on  which  the  dwelling  stands, 
the  character  of  the  neighbouring  country,  and  the 
scale  of  the  surrounding  foliage;  and  finally  to  what 
may  be  called  the  technical  logic  of  the  design  itself 
— meaning  thereby  the  satisfactory  composition  of 
the  strictly  architectural  elements  of  the  design  sim- 
ply as  a  matter  of  form.  A  house  which  really  meets 
all  these  requirements  is  certain  to  be  an  original 
individual  piece  of  work,  just  because  it  completely 
satisfies  a  special  set  of  conditions.  Originality  is 
imposed  upon  an  architect  who  thoroughly  masters 
a  particular  job. 

Such  originality  is  independent  of  the  sources 
from  which  the  designer  derives  his  favourite  archi- 
tectural forms.  The  notion  that  he  can  create  these 
forms  out  of  his  head  or  by  means  of  the  direct  in- 

226 


HALLWAY   IN    THE    KIP    HOUSE,    ORANGE,    N.    J. 


,. 


HALLWAY  AT  MAXWELL  COURT 


NEW   USES    OF   OLD    FORMS 

spiration  of  Heaven  must,  of  course,  be  at  once  dis- 
missed. In  all  the  arts  there  exists  a  great  and  living 
tradition — a  high  and  authoritative  convention  de- 
rived from  the  best  foregoing  practice,  and  an  archi- 
tect even  more  than  a  painter  cannot  hope  to  do 
mature  and  finished  work  unless  his  mind  has  been 
steeped  in  the  traditions  of  his  art.  This  study  of 
architectural  history  too  often  furnishes  the  architect 
merely  with  a  set  of  forms,  instead  of  with  a  sense 
of  form  and  a  set  of  principles;  but  a  man  who  has 
any  power  of  individual  architectural  thinking  will 
be  equal  to  the  task  of  giving  the  forms  with  which 
his  mind  is  furnished,  that  special  rendering  which 
the  conditions  of  a  particular  design  demand.  The 
forms  which  he  prefers  will  depend  partly  upon  his 
personal  taste  and  partly  upon  the  scale  and  the  cost 
of  the  house  he  is  designing;  and  he  will  be  at  liberty 
to  mix  styles  as  much  as  he  pleases  provided  he  pre- 
serves the  integrity  of  his  composition  and  does  not 
violate  the  logic  of  any  particular  style. 

The  two  houses  here  described  are  intended 
fully  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  particular  owners, 
who  wanted  to  build  upon  certain  sites;  and  to  meet 
these  different  demands  forms  were  taken  from  any 
source  which  suited  the  architect's  taste  or  conven- 
ience, and  given  an  individual  and  local  rendering. 
The  two  houses  are  alike  in  certain  respects,  because 
the  two  owners  wanted  to  put  up  the  same  kind  of 
appearance,  and  because  the  designer's  disposition 
and  training  made  him  prefer  particular  architec- 
tural forms.  On  the  other  hand  they  also  differ  radi- 
cally because  of  certain  obvious  variations  in  scale, 

229 


HOUSES    FOR  TOWN   OR   COUNTRY 

cost,  and  situation.  The  similarities  and  differences 
are  all  significant,  and  are  worth  particular  atten- 
tion. 

Both  of  these  houses  show  plainly  the  result  of 
French  training,  yet  both  are  as  far  as  possible  from 
being  merely  Beaux-Arts  products.  The  architect 
has  combined  suggestions  and  forms  taken  both  from 
Italian  and  French  sources.  The  stucco  house  with 
a  red  tile  roof  is  of  course  derived  from  the  Italian 
Renaissance  villa.  The  detail  on  the  other  hand  is 
very  largely  French.  The  general  effect  is  neither 
one  nor  the  other,  but  is  probably  more  French  than 
Italian.  But  whether  French  or  Italian,  the  effect 
is  eminently  handsome  and  striking,  and  there  is 
even  something  about  it  which  can  fairly  be  called 
American.  I  am  aware  that  many  architectural 
commentators  will  be  unable  to  discern  anything 
American  in  houses  which  preserve  so  much  of  the 
traditions  of  European  domestic  architecture;  but 
such  houses  as  these  indubitably  possess  in  a  certain 
degree  the  quality  of  local  propriety.  An  American 
house  does  not  necessarily  mean  a  house  which  is  not 
European;  it  means  primarily  a  house  adapted  to 
the  needs  and  tastes  of  its  American  owner.  The 
architect  is  first  of  all  under  obligations  to  please  his 
clients,  and  if  he  designs  a  house  which  lacks  the 
propriety  of  being  adapted  to  its  owner,  it  will  be 
wanting  in  its  chief  reason  for  existence — in  the  most 
fundamental  propriety  it  can  possibly  possess. 

The  means  taken  to  adapt  a  house  to  the  tastes  of 
its  owner  will  differ  considerably  in  the  cases  of 
different  individuals;  and  they  also  depend  a  good 

230 


STAIRCASE   IN    HOUSE   OF   W.    L.    STOW,    ESQ.,   ROSLYN,    L.   I. 


NEW    USES    OF    OLD    FORMS 

deal  upon  the  part  of  the  country  in  which  the  indi- 
viduals live.  The  demands  of  the  rich  western 
business  man  differ  considerably  from  those  of  his 
eastern  prototype.  But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
house  of  a  rich  man  of  the  East  would  as  a  rule  be 
wholly  inappropriate  unless  it  attained,  as  these  two 
houses  do,  an  eminently  striking  and  handsome 
effect.  Such  Americans  want  to  live  in  buildings 
which  express  frankly  and  fully  the  national  youth- 
ful self-assurance,  abounding  prosperity,  and  pleas- 
ure in  the  brave  appearances  of  things.  It  is  the 
endeavour  to  satisfy  this  demand  on  the  part  of  their 
clients  which  has  led  the  architects  of  expensive 
houses  to  make  these  houses  first  of  all  somewhat 
spectacular  in  appearance;  and  in  many  cases  the 
attempt  to  be  brave  and  spectacular  has  degenerated 
into  mere  flamboyancy.  In  the  present  case  such 
danger  has  been  avoided.  Our  two  houses  are,  as 
they  are  intended  to  be,  smart  and  gay;  but  they  are 
also  careful  and  in  some  respects  sober  pieces  of 
architectural  design.  They  show  the  result  of  the 
most  conscientious  study  in  the  scale  and  the  compo- 
sition of  the  masses,  in  the  proportion  of  the  differ- 
ent members,  and  in  the  adaptation  of  the  house  to 
its  site.  Ornament  is  sparingly  and  appropriately 
used.  It  is,  perhaps,  in  this  respect  more  than  in  any 
other  that  they  show  an  independence  of  the  familiar 
Beaux-Arts  convention  which  disregards  simplicity 
and  sobriety  of  decoration.  The  ornament  is  never 
superfluous.  It  is  always  subordinated  to  the  effect 
sought  by  adapting  the  house  to  its  location  and  by 
the  proper  disposition  of  its  masses  and  openings. 

233 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 

In  the  cases  of  these  two  houses  the  characters  of 
the  two  locations  happened  to  be  fundamentally  dif- 
ferent. One  is  a  dwelling  at  Roslyn,  Long  Island, 
situated  on  the  crest  of  a  high  hill  overlooking  a  con- 
siderable stretch  of  country.  The  other  is  in  New- 
port, on  a  comparatively  small  plot,  located  in 
semi-urban  surroundings.  Consequently  in  the  for- 
mer case  the  problem  was  to  design  a  house  and  its 
approaches  which  would  cap  the  hill  and  command 
the  view,  while  in  the  latter  case  the  object  of  the 
layout  was  to  shut  out  the  surroundings  and  make 
the  enclosed  grounds,  which  amounted  only  to  three 
and  two-thirds  acres,  look  complete  within  these 
narrow  limits  and  so  far  as  possible  spacious. 

The  Roslyn  estate  consists,  as  I  have  said,  of  a 
high  hill,  on  the  top  of  which  the  house  was  to  be 
situated.  The  acreage  of  the  hill  is  very  consider- 
able, but  its  summit  is  comparatively  small.  Careful 
adjustments  had  to  be  made  in  order  to  arrange  for 
the  placing  of  so  large  a  house  on  the  area  provided 
by  the  crown  of  the  hill.  The  great  desideratum 
was  to  obtain  sufficient  space  on  the  south  front  of  the 
house,  from  which  the  view  was  to  be  seen,  and  the 
location  of  the  building  was  consequently  pushed  as 
far  north  as  possible.  The  consequence  is  that  the 
fore-court  on  the  north  side,  to  which  the  main 
driveway  leads,  and  on  which  the  main  entrance 
opens,  looks  small  compared  with  the  scale  of  the 
house;  but  as  long  as  some  sacrifice  was  necessary  it 
was  better  to  sacrifice  the  fore-court  than  the  ter- 
race. In  this  way,  and  by  means  of  a  good  deal  of 
grading,  plenty  of  space  has  been  obtained  on  the 

234 


NEW    USES    OF    OLD    FORMS 

south  side,  where  it  was  most  necessary.  The  object 
of  the  whole  layout  was  to  make  room  for  a  broad 
terrace,  from  which  the  very  beautiful  and  extensive 
view  was  to  be  enjoyed,  and  by  virtue  of  which  the 
house  would  really  fit  the  hill  and  crown  its  summit. 
This  terrace  outlines  with  a  low  parapet  the  level  of 
the  hill-top,  and  overruns  by  a  good  many  feet  the 
ends  of  the  house.  At  each  end  a  broad  flight  of 
steps  leads  down  to  the  level  of  the  garden,  which  is 
considerably  lower  than  that  of  the  house;  and 
which  is  enclosed  on  three  sides  by  the  walls  of  the 
terrace  and  of  the  steps.  On  the  fourth  or  south 
side,  it  is,  of  course,  entirely  open;  but  the  formal 
treatment  is  continued  by  another  and  still  more 
spacious  terrace  on  a  slightly  lower  level.  This 
second  terrace  is  kept  entirely  green  and  is  bounded 
by  a  walk  leading  around  its  outer  line  and  by  a 
hedge.  The  whole  arrangement  makes  excellent  use 
of  the  space  at  hand  and  is  admirably  scaled.  The 
effect  as  it  is  shown  in  the  accompanying  illus- 
trations is  not  all  that  it  should  be,  because  the 
rigid  lines  of  the  garden  architecture  are  unre- 
lieved by  any  sufficient  planting.  The  proper  dis- 
position of  masses  of  shrubbery  would  serve  to 
soften  and  relieve  the  architecture,  so  that  its  white 
surfaces  and  straight  lines  would  count  very  differ- 
ently in  one's  total  impression  of  the  place.  As  this 
is  what  was  manifestly  intended,  the  work  must  be 
judged  in  the  light  of  such  a  modification.  The 
treatment  is,  of  course,  fundamentally  architectural, 
as  it  should  be — particularly  in  relation  to  the  lo- 
cation of  the  house;  but  the  proper  planting,  after 

237 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

it  had  attained  its  growth,  would  have  subdued  this 
architectural  effect  more  to  the  tone  of  its  natural 
surroundings-. 

The  design  of  the  house  is  as  interesting  as  that  of 
the  layout.  The  building  consists  of  a  central  mem- 
ber with  wings  projecting  on  both  sides  of  both  ends. 
The  central  division  is  distinguished  by  heavy  en- 
gaged columns  running  through  two  stories,  a  plain 
frieze  above,  which  continues  around  the  whole 
building,  and  a  parapet.  On  the  south  side  the  en- 
gaged columns  dominate  the  length  of  the  facade 
between  the  wings;  on  the  north  side  they  frame  the 
entrance  doorway  and  the  window  of  the  main  hall. 
The  wings  are  more  simply  treated,  and  an  excellent 
effect  is  obtained  by  the  plain  surfaces  of  the  walls, 
in  their  relation  to  the  deep  reveals  of  the  openings. 
These  reveals  are  unusually  deep  on  the  whole 
building;  but  they  are  particularly  deep  in  the  win- 
dows of  the  wings.  They  help,  together  with  the 
strong,  simple  lines  of  the  structure  and  the  sobriety 
of  the  ornament,  to  give  it  a  solid,  dignified  appear- 
ance. Its  dignity  and  effect  would,  I  think,  have 
been  enhanced  by  the  substitution  of  stone  for 
stucco,  but  the  colour  of  the  plaster  has  more  grey 
in  it  than  usual,  and  is  in  itself  both  pleasing  and 
appropriate.  It  should  be  noticed,  also,  that  the 
plan  of  the  house  enables  its  occupants  to  obtain  full 
advantage  of  the  layout.  The  living-room  and  the 
dining-room  both  open  upon  the  paved  recess  be- 
tween wings  on  the  south  side  of  the  house,  thus  get- 
ting full  benefit  of  the  exposure  and  the  outlook. 
Its  dimensions  and  proportions  are  those  of  a  moder- 

238 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

ate-sized  apartment — quite  in  scale  with  the  life  and 
the  occupations  of  a  modern  American  family. 

The  place  at  Newport  is  less  of  an  estate  than  that 
in  Roslyn,  and  more  of  a  country  villa,  but  even  in 
this  instance  there  was  more  ground  in  the  imme- 
diate vicinity  of  the  building  to  lay  out  than  is 
usually  the  case  with  Newport  residences,  though  it 
did  not  command  any  view.  It  had  to  be  treated  ex- 
clusively in  relation  to  the  house,  and  with  the  ob- 
ject in  mind  of  creating  a  group  of  self-contained 
domestic  architectural  and  landscape  effects.  In 
composing  these  effects  there  were  two  advantages. 
The  size  of  the  house  was  not  such  as  entirely  to 
throw  it  out  of  scale  with  the  dimensions  of  the 
grounds;  and  the  grounds  themselves  were  partly 
enclosed  by  a  fine  growth  of  trees.  The  enclosure 
was,  however,  by  no  means  complete;  and  particu- 
larly on  the  south  side  a  good  deal  of  planting  was 
necessary  for  the  purpose  of  shutting  in  the  garden 
and  shutting  out  the  neighbourhood.  Here  again 
the  approach  is  from  the  north.  The  road  leads 
straight  up  to  the  house,  and  runs  equi-distant  be- 
tween two  big  spreading  oaks  which  screen  the  two 
wings  of  the  house  and  disclose  only  the  entrance. 
The  entrance  is  situated  in  the  angle  of  the  wings, 
and  is  emphasised  by  pilasters  running  up  through 
two  stories,  and  by  a  parapet  which  breaks  the  line 
of  the  roof. 

The  dining-room  and  living-room  are  situated  on 
the  south  side  of  the  house,  and  are  planned  so  as  to 
be  used  in  connection  with  the  gardens  for  summer 
entertainment.  The  French  windows  give  upon  a 

240 


NEW    USES    OF   OLD    FORMS 

small  terrace,  outlined  by  a  parapet.  A  few  steps 
lead  down  from  this  terrace  to  another  terrace  on  a 
slightly  lower  level ;  and  from  there  another  short 
flight  of  steps  leads  to  the  garden.  The  garden  is 
very  simply  treated  with  comparatively  few  archi- 
tectural features.  At  the  end  opposite  to  the  house 
there  is  a  pergola,  at  the  back  and  on  the  sides  of 
which  deep  masses  of  cedars  have  been  planted.  The 
effect  of  this  terminal  feature,  of  which  the  scale  is 
perhaps  somewhat  small,  is  extremely  charming. 
The  treatment  of  the  garden  is  very  open  without 
much  planting;  all  is  rather  inconspicuous,  the  pur- 
pose of  the  arrangement  doubtless  being  to  make  the 
available  space  go  as  far  as  possible,  but  the  minor 
features  entailed  by  this  arrangement  look  somewhat 
episodic  and  the  garden  furniture  has  not  in  all 
cases  been  very  happily  placed.  The  green  lawn 
also  has  the  appearance  of  being  cut  up  too  much 
with  white  paths.  These,  however,  are  minor  blem- 
ishes. The  place  is  on  the  whole  a  very  skilful  ex- 
ample of  a  stucco  villa,  which  in  its  gaiety  and 
smartness  has  not  lost  the  more  sober  architectural 
merits. 

In  spite  of  certain  resemblances  to  other  hand- 
some American  houses,  these  two  buildings  belong 
in  one  sense  thoroughly  to  their  architect,  just  as 
they  belong  in  another  sense  thoroughly  to  their 
owners.  Their  style  differs  not  only  from  any  speci- 
fic historic  precedent,  but  from  any  similar  Ameri- 
can houses;  and  this  individual  stamp  has  been  ob- 
tained, not  in  any  arbitrary  way,  but  by  the  candid 
and  thorough  treatment  of  two  special  problems  of 

243 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR   COUNTRY 


AN   ITALIAN    HALLWAY 

design,  as  should  be  the  case  in  adaptations  of  old 
forms  to  new  uses. 

A  chapter  on  old  forms  would  be  incomplete 
without  some  remarks  on  that  style  of  architecture 
commonly  known  as  Colonial.  That  the  arts  and 
sciences  follow  civilisation  was  never  more  con- 
clusively illustrated  than  in  our  own  country.  The 
hardy  pilgrims  who  settled  our  rugged  shores 
brought  with  them  recollections  of  the  architecture 
in  vogue  at  that  time  in  their  old  countries.  These 
recollections  found  their  fullest  expression  in  "  Co- 
lonial "  architecture,  examples  of  which  may  be 
seen  to-day  all  along  the  coast  from  Maine  to 

244 


NEW    USES    OF    OLD    FORMS 


A   ROMAN    EFFECT 

Georgia  and  Florida.  As  civilisation  advanced 
westward,  places  of  abode  for  the  settlers  had  to 
follow,  but  compared  with  even  the  rudest  of  the 
coast  houses,  they  were  positively  primitive.  Even 
after  conditions  had  become  sufficiently  stable  for 
the  establishment  of  permanent  homes,  and  people 
had  acquired  money  to  build  them,  the  result  in 
most  cases  was  by  no  means  happy.  The  architecture 
of  these  first  Western  houses  was  influenced  very 
often  by  other  foreign  tendencies  less  admirable  than 
those  of  the  Renaissance.  In  many  cases  architec- 
tural tradition  had  become  so  weak  that  the  result 
was  positively  ludicrous. 

245 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

But  we  have  now  arrived  at  a  period  in  which 
artistic  education  is  fast  becoming  more  general 
throughout  the  United  States  than  even  the  most 
sanguine  had  hoped  for  half  a  century  ago.  The 
American  architect  is  continually  encountering  new 
problems  and  solving  them  in  his  own  way.  He  has 
even  struck  out  on  new  lines.  The  country  house, 
for  instance,  is  a  strictly  American  product,  and  it  is 
in  this  kind  of  work  that  the  American  architect 
shows  at  his  best. 

Colonial  architecture  has  got  to  be  almost  as  well 
known  and  as  effectively  and  correctly  rendered  in 
the  West  as  anywhere  in  the  Atlantic  States.  So 
accurate  is  the  architect's  knowledge  on  the  subject 
nowadays  that  one  might  look  at  any  one  of  dozens 
of  houses  and  imagine  it  were  in  New  England. 
There  is  nothing  in  either  composition  or  detail  to 
undeceive  one  for  a  moment.  There  is  something 
frank,  something  naive  and  ingenuous  about  Colo- 
nial houses  that  an  Englishman  would  perhaps  sum 
up  in  one  word — homely.  The  exteriors  are  invit- 
ing but  not  pretentious,  decorative  but  not  ornate. 
On  the  interiors  they  are  frank,  giving  what  their 
exteriors  promise — cosiness,  delicacy  and  refinement 
of  detail. 

The  expression  that  an  architect  gives  a  house  is 
to  a  certain  extent  an  expression  of  his  relation  with 
the  client.  If  the  latter  be  particularly  amenable  and 
amiable  in  his  intercourse  with  the  architect,  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  the  work  the  architect  does  for 
him  will  be  performed  with  a  keen  pleasure,  which 
cannot  help  making  itself  visible  in  the  aspect  of  the 

246 


HOUSES    FOR   TOWN    OR    COUNTRY 

finished  product.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  client 
is  a  difficult  person  to  deal  with  pleasantly,  the  archi- 
tect will  approach  his  task  with  a  necessarily  dimin- 
ished interest.  Then,  again,  the  designer's  state  of 
mind  and  all  the  petty  troubles  of  the  day's  work 
show  their  influences  in  the  architectural  com- 
position as  they  would  in  a  painting  or  a  piece  of 
sculpture. 

Little  do  we  think  when  we  behold  one  of  the 
world's  masterpieces,  what  must  have  been  the  com- 
plex causes  for  the  ideas  that  prompted  the  master 
to  express  himself  as  he  did  and  how  his  work  would 
perhaps  have  taken  on  a  different  form  amid  other 
surroundings  at  another  time.  But  it  is  the  idea  in  a 
work  of  art  that  is  striven  after,  and  it  is  that  which 
the  interested  spectator  should  try  to  follow  in  his 
study  if  he  would  be  rewarded  for  his  labour.  It  is 
in  this  spirit  that  the  American  architect  appears 
more  and  more  to  be  studying  old  forms,  adapting 
them  to  new  uses,  and  transplanting  them  to  the  re- 
motest parts  of  the  United  States. 


THE  END 


249 


SUCCESSFUL  HOUSES 

Oliver  Coleman 


Descriptions  of  Well-Furnished  Houses  and  Suggestions 

for  Householders.     .With  over  one  hundred 

illustration?  of  interiors. 

CONTENTS 
The  Hall 

The  Drawing  Room 
The  Dining  Room 
The  Library 

The  Den  or  Smoking  Room 
Bedrooms 

Walls  and  Ceilings 
Floors 

Windows  and  Doors 
Portieres,  Their  Use  and  Misuse 
On  the  Use  of  Soft  Woods 
Small  Ornaments 
Artificial  Lighting 
Walls  and  Hedges 

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THE  BOOK  OF  ONE 
HUNDRED  HOUSES 

With  upwards  of  three  hundred    half-tone    illustrations 

Partial  List  of  Contents: 

How  to  Make  a  Successful  House 

A  House  for  an  Architect 

House-Planning  in  the  Country 

An  Ideal  Country  House 

Two  Colonial  Houses  in  Maryland 

Possibilities  in  a  Southern  Clime 

The  Hillside  Problem 

In  Regard  to  Cottages 

A  Three-Thousar.d-Dollar  Cottage 

The  Rescue  of  an  Old  House 

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